Arwin Mesquita
It’s unfortunate to note that Civic Sense, Cleanliness and respect for the Environment are generally lacking with many Indians and as more Indians are moving to the West and other Foreign countries, it’s sad to note that many are taking such uncivilised behaviours abroad and tarnishing the historically good image of Indians to the outside world! Also when most of these Indians celebrate their religious Festivals, they seem to have the impression that they can do as they wish in terms of making the surroundings including waters(rivers, Seas) dirty/unclean (again the same is also being done in foreign countries!). It’s common knowledge that all religions teach good values including cleanliness and respect for the environment, which must be followed by respective followers!
To be fair, I must say that we must not paint all Indians or rather Indian states with the same brush and there are in summary
Two Indias” with regards to the subject under discussion! In my travels to many parts of India and also interaction with many Indians there are people/states in India which have a much better civic sense/cleanliness and there are people/states which are really bad/worse on the same! It’s the latter which is giving a bad image to all Indians; particularly when viewed abroad in foreign countries!
In Goa, we are fortunate to see all religious festivals of local Goans and I myself was not pleased with the mess left after celebrating religious festivals(across all religious communities) so hence we Goans also have our civic sense/cleanliness/respect for environment shortcomings, however when I saw the “day after” post religious festival celebrated by mostly specific migrant community in Goa (including at Colva Beach) I saw much worse cases of uncleanliness/dirt/garbage etc. left behind! Coming back to my “Two Indias” view that some states/people have better civic sense/cleanliness than others!
Coming to my main point, Goan Ministers are now planning to spend a lot of money to develop infrastructure for Spiritual Tourism and my first question to them is as to whether they are also prioritising civic sense, cleanliness & respect for the environment! Also the second question; with Goa itself showcasing its own vibrancy of religious festivals cutting across religious communities, is this not sufficient for promoting Religious/Spiritual tourism in Goa, was it really necessary to create more which are more based on the ethos of other Indian states/cultures and alien to the Goan ethos? Could we not offer/prioritise/invest in religious/spiritual tourism based on only the Goan ethos, which surely will be unique in India and globally as well?
I think that many Goa BJP Ministers are trying to prove to their party leadership as to who is the most religious, so as to win special political power /wealth accumulation privileges from their Party High command and I doubt they have any priority for civic sense, cleanliness & respect for the environment! .
Goans need to think critically about the plans by the Goa Government for Spiritual Tourism (based on the ethos from other Indian states!). The last thing we want is for the Said Spiritual tourism to defeat the true values of the respective religion!
