Manohar Parrikar defends minister who called domestic tourists 'scum of the earth'

The Goa chief minister said that the town and country planning minister was not able to express himself correctly and was referring to an isolated incident of a tourist urinating from the window of a bus.

"He (Sardesai) should not have used very harsh words. I have spoken to him about it. He was not wrong in what he was highlighting. But he interpreted it in a wrong way or rather, he was not able to express it correctly," Manohar Parrikar said.

He added that the minister had corrected himself later and that "sometimes, a politician has to be careful while making a statement."

The Goa chief minister also said that there was "a possibility of dilution or modification of the statement" if a report was filed by a journalist not present at the event.

Media reports had quoted Sardesai as saying, ''Today we have almost six times the population of Goa coming as tourists, those tourists are not top-end tourists, they are also the scum of the earth. Are they responsible? They are not."

He has also said that north Indians who visit Goa want to "create Haryana in Goa".

"We are dependent on north Indians and this is what they do. They are not bothered about Goa. They will like to recreate Haryana in Goa", the cabinet minister had said.

Vijai Sardesai, meanwhile, has refused to take back his comments, stating that he voiced the general sentiment of the locals. He also said that the domestic tourists create the maximum nuisance and spread garbage in the state.

Manohar Parrikar is himself in the centre of a storm after his remarks that he was fearful that even girls had started
drinking beer.