GOA, India, April 19, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Local politicians have rejected a proposal by promoters of the Playboy brand in India, PB Lifestyle, to open a seaside Playboy club on the resort town's Candolim beach following complaints that establishing the club would promote vulgarity and prostitution.
Sanjay Gupta, CEO of PB Lifestyle in India, told the BBC that Playboy plans to open 120 clubs, hotels, fashion cafes and shops in India over the next 10 years, starting with a 22,000-square-foot club in Goa.
Michael Lobo, a member of the state assembly for Goa's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, threatened a hunger strike if Playboy was allowed to set up shop in his jurisdiction
“Playboy is nothing but a glorified dance bar or a glorified prostitution joint,” Lobo told Reuters. “If the government had to give a license to Playboy, it amounts to giving a license for prostitution.”
“We respect our women,” he added. “We don't want to promote Goa as a sex tourism destination like Thailand.”
On Monday, however, Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar told the state assembly that Playboy's license application to set up a “beach shack” had been rejected on technical grounds, citing rules that allow such licenses for individuals but not companies.
“I am assuring the house that Playboy club will not be allowed to operate a beach shack. The shack policy of the state makes it mandatory that the application for any shack should be applied for by a local individual in his name and we can’t grant shack permission for a brand,” Parrikar said, according to the Times of India.
Lobo praised the decision, and called for a ban on any other developments by Playboy. “It is not just a question of permitting Playboy in Candolim. It should be banned across Goa, because Goa should be veered away from international chains which promote vulgarity,” he said according to an AP report.
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Playboy magazines, as well as most other “adult” publications, are not sold in India because strict obscenity laws ban material deemed “lascivious or appealing to prurient interests.”