Double standards

Janmashtami, like many other religious festivals, is more than just for the devout —they are important social occasions where communities congregate and take part in traditions handed down over the years. For some time now, both big money and political patronage have played major roles. The fact that Ukranian belly dancers were part of a Janmashtami celebration in Bandra, organised by a Nationalist Congress Party worker, has created a stir in political and social circles. 

It can fairly be said that belly dancers at a religious function is an avoidable vulgarisation. Some vulgarisation has become par for the course, as orthodox religious tradition had mingled with local interpretations. Film music for instance is now a regular at most Hindu religious public celebrations — but even so, there is a world of difference between devotional lyrics being set to a popular tune and belly dancers performing to mark a religious occasion.

But it is the presence of ministers and officers of the Nationalist Congress Party that makes this belly-dancing performance take a bizarre turn. The organisers of the event may have felt that they were providing interesting and appropriate entertainment to attendees and their special guests, who included state ministers Chhagan Bhujbal and Jayant Patil. But this is the party whose senior member, the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra, RR Patil was at the forefront of the entire moral policing movement to rid the city of such “evils” as bar dancers. During the recent cricket matches in the Twenty20 format, cheerleaders were frowned upon by leaders of the NCP, and in Mumbai, these fairly innocuous dancers were forced to “cover up” in India’s most cosmopolitan city, although they retained their original costumes in other, less cosmopolitan parts of India.

The belly dancers now create a piquant situation for Mumbai’s politicians. It appears that various parts of the same political party do not see eye to eye. To some, dancing girls are an eyesore. To others, they are good enough to be part of a religious ceremony. What stand will RR Patil take now — will he pull up the organisers, banish the girls or ask questions of his fellow partymen? To say the party in question is embarrassed is putting it mildly.

We do not stand for moral policing. This embarrassment should make the politicians squirm and ask themselves some questions. How can they behave like moral nursemaids at some times and break the rules of religious sanctity so flagrantly at others? And, following from that, are we still to be held ransom to the moral outrage of a couple of politicians when their own senior colleagues break the rules with impunity?