In a couple of days, authorities in Goa lay exposed as celebrities went exposing themselves nude. A one-minute 'soft porn' video shot at Chapoli Dam in Shrishal-Canacona went viral earlier this week triggering outrage among locals. The dam is a restricted area, but there are beliefs and sentiments connected to the Mallikarjun Devalaya Shristal. A few days later another Bollywood celebrity Milind Soman celebrated his 55th birthday by going the full monty and running on an unidentified beach in Goa. His action photo was uploaded by his wife on Twitter.
The fact that the filming of the clip is done at the dam, which is a restricted area, raises suspicion of involvement of authorities to facilitate the process. There are allegations that police were in the vicinity during the shoot. Let's go with the argument that permissions were not granted for the filming. The question then is where have the checks gone? Can the water resources department absolve itself of this development? Who holds responsibility for such a breakdown? In the Milind Soman case, a model has run nude on the beach, and no authority has taken cognizance. Where is the beach surveillance, and what happened to the cyber cell since the picture has gone viral?
The fact of the matter is that our machinery is not responsive to situations. Nobody moved an inch, even as the videos and pictures splashed across social media. There was no urgency to crack the whip even after the police were apprised of the clip and presented a compact disk as evidence. It's a shame that protests and complaints are needed to wake authorities out of their slumber. Till now there are six complaints registered against the filming.
Nudism is not new to Goa. Leave aside the hippies that camped nude alongside the once virgin beaches of Goa till the late 70s, recently desi tourists too are seen indulging in nudism out in the open. Lest we forget, in March 2015 a couple from Madhya Pradesh managed to take a bike ride with the semi-nude lady positioning herself on the tank as the man travelled across the Mandovi bridge to his destination unchecked. It was only after an onlooker filmed the stunt that authorities tracked the couple and booked them.
Goa is a tourist destination known for its rustic locales and beaches that send a distinct vibe of freedom, peace and holidays. We cannot find acceptability to nudism the way Germany, Italy, France and other international tourist destination have done with marked nude zones. Goa has its distinct identity where ethos and culture are respected. The State cannot sell its soul for the sake of tourism and allow nudism and pornography.
Authorities need to clamp down heavily on any indecent public behaviour and set a deterrent. The recent talk has been to move away from the beach and night-life party tourism and diversify into other forms of tourism. It looks like we are not getting a makeover any time soon and such nudism is only going to dent our efforts of redefining our tourism.
