Goa Chief Minister, Manohar Parrikar today apologized and gave a clarification for the Goa Home Ministry's use of a racist' word to refer to an African who had been arrested in Calangute in May.
Parrikar said, "It is clerk writing in police, they don't understand how serious the particular word is. A word 'negro' has two meanings. One is obviously never refer to a black person as negro because it is a derogatory word. So for that purpose if somebody is hurt, I apologize on that."
"But 'Negro' is also a river in Amazon region in Brazil, which empties into Atlantic Ocean. There is a big river called as Negro. So it is not exactly same since it does not refer to any one person. It should not be taken as an offence per say", he added.
"But this is a clerk writing something. We can't go through every word. I feel that the word is inappropriate. It can be replaced", said Parrikar.
For the second time in less than a year, the Government of Goa is in the midst of a racism row for using an offensive term to refer to an African national.
The annexure was submitted along with Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar's written reply which was tabled during the monsoon session of the state assembly.
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Meanwhile, Congress leader Manish Tewari called on the Goa Government to sensitize its officials, saying, "This is highly objectionable language, the Goa Government needs to be more sensitive. This shows lack of cultural sensitivity. The Goa government should sensitise its officers and refer to people in a proper manner."
This is the second such incident after Goa Minister Dayanand Mandrekar in November 2013 had referred to Nigerians as a "cancer" and as "wild animals".
