Once when I was in college our principal drew up plans to take us on an All India tour. I took the plan to my dad to ask his permission to go on the tour. The first thing he asked me was whether Goa was included in the itinerary. I said yes, it was included, and he said no, I could not go. Everyone else left on that tour but not I.

I was surprised at my dad’s attitude. He was not known to be a narrow-minded elder or a stickler for mundane values. But what he said then still resound in my ears. You are going on an All-India tour; therefore Goa will be a distraction to any youngster. The place is infested with hippies and drugs. That is not India! How true!

What is that that Western tourists find attractive about Goa that they cannot get in their countries? Why are more and more tourists who visit Goa hitting headlines these days? Are we turning a blind eye to what Goa is actually all about for the sake of the tourism sector?

Ever since the Hippie wave hit the world, Goa of India began to become famous for all the wrong reasons. Then, hard-core Hippies were known to have got into Goa by land, via Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and into India. Perhaps our thirst for hard foreign currency and the feeling that we were the centre of Hari Krishna movement to which many Westerners of those days were falling head over heels in pursuit of freedom from materialism and decadence, made our governments to look the other way, while the foundation was being laid for turning Goa into the drug tourism spot of South Asia, as it has now turned out to be.

Today, tourists from countries as far away as Russia and Israel come to Goa among many others, but not all of them can be said to be pure wide eyed tourists in search of gems from India’s culture and diversity.

The hordes of tourists of all hues and shades who come to Goa are today able to make there thanks to mass air travel which has burst into the global skies, but it has brought with it its fair share of hard drugs too.

It is indeed sad that for every two western tourists who are taken unawares at the ready availability of assorted drugs there, there might well be five Indians who get lured into the habit thanks to the profligacy and open culture that is promoted in this idyllic setting of Bharat.

From holidaying students to fun-seekers who have money to burn, all are well catered to by visitors from Russia and elsewhere who are known to be veritable sources of all the drugs that flow in the resort. When the state government knows what is going on and the central government does not take a serious note of the scandals there in the name of tourism, it must surprise none that local police do not view the goings on with the seriousness they deserve. Thus Goa might well be a front for supplies of drugs into the far reaches of the country.

Scarlette Keeling, the 15 year old British girl who is alleged to have been murdered is not something that should surprise anyone at all. Both, the killers and the girl’s family may or may not be free of blame when all investigations are concluded. Such is the state in which Goa is found today. Imagine, the girl’s mother leaves her alone and goes off to another resort down south; for what?. Why would a normal family in its right sense do such a thing?

Just a week ago another Briton Michael Harvey was found hanging in his hotel room, possibly after an overdose of drugs. Inside this year alone a total of ten Britons have died in Goa.

For all one might care, if the rot that is Goa is confined to that place then I do not see why any one should get worked up about it, but how can we guarantee that drugs and promiscuity do not percolate into the rest of India from Goa?

Tourism must be promoted, but we cannot allow tourism to promote drug abuse and promiscuity in our land, can we?

Khwaja massoud