A majority of domestic tourists visiting Goa are the “scum of the earth”, Goa Town and Country Planning Minister Vijai Sardesai said, according to PTI. The minister also claimed that north Indian tourists were trying to “create a Haryana in Goa”.

Sardesai, president of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s ally Goa Forward Party, was speaking at the Goa Biz Fest near Panaji. He said while Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar was trying to push tourists coming to Goa, it was difficult for the state to control “irresponsible tourists”. He asked the state government to attract more foreign tourists and upper-class Indian tourists.

“Today we have almost six times population of Goa coming as tourists,” Sardesai said. “Those tourists are not top-end tourists, they are also the scum of the earth. Are they responsible? They are not.”

He also said that Goans were superior to the rest of the people in the country in terms of social indices. “We are high in per capita income, social and political consciousness, we are much superior than people who are coming in. Those people, how will you control them?” he added.

Goa, with a population of nearly 1.6 million, attracts more than six million tourists annually. “We are dependent on north Indians and this is what they do. They are not bothered about Goa. They will like to recreate Haryana in Goa,” Sardesai said.

Parrikar has also stirred controversy by saying that he is worried because now “even girls have started drinking beer”.