Should 'pub culture' be a part of India's tourist attraction?

Accept changes with time

The Union tourism ministers statement depicts his narrow mindedness and the lack of understanding that India is no more ancient, it is going global like several other countries in the world. The country and its people need to embrace eventually all that is global. Berlin and other cities in Europe have built their vibrancy of night life around music culture and still they are able preserve their culture and tradition. We have to get out of this archaic mindset of moral policing and be ready to embrace whatever is good for growth. On one hand you want all the luxury of cars and lifestyle that is international, but not the pub culture. Things have to change and India has to evolve with time. We have to embrace new culture, which we will do it anyway with our huge population being under 30 age. What preservation we are talking about when we cannot even protect our heritage sites, which are being littered with garbage and dirt. Prohibition is not a solution to anything. India is global than ever before and we have to embrace what is global culture.
Ma faiza, Electronica DJ & Artist

Promote Indian culture in tourism

In fact what the union tourism minister is saying is very right. We should not want alcohol culture to promote our tourism. From new the government we expect that the proliferating alcohol industry in the country is curtailed to some extent, especially in the Maharashtra state. Tourism in India should not be promoted at the cost of losing our tradition. Foreign tourists are not coming here for the pub culture but to for experiencing our rich Indian traditions and culture, which we are fast loosing. We have to project our tradition and culture to attract tourism. It is not at all moral policing to preserve our tradition and culture. Embracing pub culture we are fast loosing our younger generation to alcoholism, which is not healthy at all. When the western world is going in a different direction and correcting themselves, why should we make the same mistake.
Dr Kalyan Gangwal,
Founder President, Surva Jeevan Prathisthan

Pub culture should stay

There are two ways to look at this. One is from the point of view of the minister and the concern that he is trying to portray through what he said. He does not want India to be portrayed different from its cultural heritage. But on the other hand, I don not think that anything like this is happening for it to be controlled. When someone goes on a vacation, they don’t always only go for the cultural and heritage sites, night life and the so called pub culture is also a huge part of it. Keeping this in mind I think that there is a need for the pub culture but there isn’t a need to over emphasise on it. There is also a need to lay out a clear definition of ‘pub culture because unlike other countries like Germany and London, India does not have an extremely vibrant pub culture. If music events and other events are considered as pub culture then it also needs to be realised that they are a part of the culture in a sense and they just need to be positioned properly to fit in.
Rasika Wakalkar, Owner of Rudraksh Studios (a designer store)

Cultural diversity is India’s pulse

I do not think that tourism in any way is being promoted on the basis of pub culture. Tourists from across the world come to India for the temples, shrines, forts, and other cultural things. In many places India is still known as the land of the snake charmers. Where is the pub culture in all this? Just as this statement is a follow up to the Goa minister’s ban on bikinis on the beaches, I feel that our Union Tourism Minister might just be considering Goa when he made this statement. Goa might be the place to party and might have a very active night life but that is just one among the few other places in India and exceptions are always there. Other cities like Jaipur or even Bangalore for that matter where the nightlife ends by 11:30 are also a part of the India that he is talking about. I wonder if our ministers actually do their home work before making such statements.
Maroof Shaikh, Youth

Youth is affected by pub culture

Pub culture needs to be controlled. I support the view as it has been increasing day by day and youth is getting highly influenced. This is leading to rise of alcoholism not only in men but also women and young girls. I feel things should be kept in control by the government machinery and limitation should be set to restrict this rise. India is in some ways being promoted as a pub hub which is not what it is. Even if it is just a smaller part of the larger picture that is the one thing that should be getting the least focus. India has many other things that need to be highlighted and the pub culture is definitely not one of those factors.
Dhruv Girish Ruparel, Director, Bharat Suzuki

India has never marketed pub culture

Since our independence India has progressed way far ahead and I feel the Union minister is being orthodox and ignorant in passing such statements. India has never marketed pub culture for tourism. However, yes where the flow of tourists is high in certain states in India like in Goa, we have pubs and casinos to enhance the tourists flow. I don’t believe this is wrong also since the government is earning a lot of revenue because of the number of tourists that flock to India. On one end the Union minister wants to reduce visa fees and air fares to boost tourism and at the same time he wants to put restrictions for the same. I feel if the minister has his way, tourism will still not be affected but it will definitely give rise to illegal businesses to flourish.
Ryan Nazareth, Branch Head, TSI – YATRA