In his first public appearance in Goa for more than a decade, Sri Ram Sene chief Pramod Muthalik thanked Chief Minister Pramod Sawant for “revoking” the ban against him entering the state.
“For the last 10 years, there was a ban (on Muthalik entering Goa). Abhi mukt ho gya hun (I am free now). The ban has been lifted due to the graciousness of the Chief Minister. I want to thank him. I met him yesterday. I told him that it is because of his courtesy that I got the opportunity to visit,” Muthalik said in Goa on Sunday.
He was speaking on the sidelines of the ‘Sanatan Rashtra Shankhnad Mahotsav’, organised by the Goa-based Sanatan Sanstha, to commemorate the 83rd birthday of the group’s founder, Jayant Athavale, and the group’s silver jubilee. CM Sawant had attended the opening ceremony of the three-day event on Saturday.
On what prompted the state to impose the ban, Muthalik said, “Yehi sarkar thi (It was the same government that imposed the ban). In their view, there may have been a wrong opinion about my personality, which is why the ban was enforced at the time.”
The controversial chief of Sri Ram Sene shot into the limelight for “moral policing”, after he led a group of men who attacked men and women visiting a pub in Mangaluru in 2009, claiming they were “violating traditional Indian values”. Subsequently, under the Congress-led government, the district administration in Goa in 2009 issued a notification banning the entry of Muthalik and his associates into the state.
Muthalik’s entry in Goa was again banned in August 2014, when BJP’s Manohar Parrikar was the Chief Minister, after Muthalik had announced his decision to set up his outfit in Goa later that year to “fight against drug, alcohol and pub culture” in the state. According to officials, the decision to ban his entry was based on police reports that had warned that the entry of members of Sri Ram Sene and its leader could lead to a law-and-order problem in Goa, and that his statements “will affect peace, harmony and create fear in the minds of the public”.
For over a decade, the ban had been extended every few months by the district magistrates of the two districts in Goa.
However, the ban lapsed this year and was not extended. In March, Muthalik entered Goa and met former Goa RSS chief-turned-rebel Subhash Velingkar at his home in Panaji.
