Beach parties are not permitted by law, says Goa minister

"Beach parties" in coastal Goa, which attract hundreds of thousands of tourists every year, are patronised by "anti-elements", are illegal and cannot be permitted by law, state Art and Culture Minister Dayanand Mandrekar said on Friday.

"Beach parties are not permitted by law," he told reporters on the sidelines of a function related to devotional songs.

"Beach parties are organised in our constituencies. People call them by different names. Do you know how beach parties happen? People who run restaurants, play music. Then there are some anti-elements who start dancing to the music," said Mandrekar, who represents the Siolim constituency which includes coastal villages of Anjuna and Chapora, popular hubs for rave parties and electronic dance music events, partronised by hundreds of thousands of music lovers every year.

The senior minister in the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government claimed that one of the biggest proponents of western culture was the immensely popular Sunburn electronic dance music festival, which is held in the state every year.

"The biggest event which promotes western culture is Sunburn which goes on for three days. Who will stop it? The event requires multi-department involvement like the tourism and home department which takes decisions. . My ministry of art and culture does not promote western (culture). We promote only 'Lok Kala' (people's culture) events.

"Western (culture) is a ghost which is raising its head," said Mandrekar.

--IANS

maya/vd