Indian Right Wing Leader Calls for White Paper on Casino Industry

In a list of publicly articulated questions to Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, Subhash Velingkar, a leader of the Indian right-wing organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has called for a white paper on casino industry in the Indian state of Goa. He also urged the Goan Chief Minister Pramod Sawant to set up a date by which offshore casinos would be moved outside the state capital.

Mr. Velingkar has accused the government, a coalition government led by BJP, whom the RSS supports, of being in cahoots with the casino industry and demanded a white paper on the cost-benefit ratio of casino gambling to the coastal state.

In a list of publicly articulated questions to Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, Velingkar on Monday also demanded a definite date by which offshore casinos would be moved outside the state capital.

“Successive BJP governments in Goa have cheated the people vis-a-vis its assurances that the casino industry in Goa would be shut down,” Velingkar, who now heads the regional political party, the Goa Suraksha Manch, told the media here.

“In the 2012 Assembly elections, the BJP made opposition to casinos as one of their key poll issues. When they came to power, the party threw the issue into the dustbin. (Late Chief Minister Manohar) Parrikar announced that by 2015, the casinos would be driven out of the Mandovi. People thought he would do it, but they were cheated once again because the casinos are still here,” he added.