Racism row: Goa government refers to Africans using the ‘N’ word

Panaji: The Goa government is in racism row once again for using a highly derogatory and racial offensive term while referring to Africans. In an annexure submitted to the state assembly, the term 'unknown African N****', spelt wrongly as ‘Ni***’, was used while referring to an African national who was arrested from the Calangute beach on May 8.

The annexure was submitted along with Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar's written reply tabled during the monsoon session of the assembly on Wednesday.

Goa Congress objected to the usage of the word ‘N****’.

Read: Manohar Parrikar says sorry in Goa Assembly for using the 'N' word for Africans

Congress spokesperson Durgadas Kamat said, "A circular needs to be sent to the departments asking them to refrain from making such racist remarks. We are a tourist state and such words send negative signals to international tourists."

He said the use of this word in official documentation was "unfortunate" and such references create a bad image about Goa among the international tourist community.

In November 2013, state Art and Culture Minister Dayanand Mandrekar had termed Nigerians as "cancer", after they had blocked a road at Porvorim near here over the death of a fellow national.