RR Patil, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and Home Minister and the one-man force behind the ban on dance bars in the state, is once again alone.
When he first spoke against dance bars, not many supported him. And, today, when high court has revoked the ban, there is no one to support him once again. When Patil’s point of view gained support from the middle and lower-middle classes of urban society as well as rural parts of the Maharashtra, all political parties clearly smelt that they were left with no other option than to support the proposed ban. So the legislature unanimously passed the bill effecting ban on dance bars in the state.
However, when on Wednesday, Bombay High Court revoked the ban on two grounds—that it discriminates between common dance bars and starred hotels and it is in violation of the right to livelihood, almost all political parties including his own seems to have deserted Patil.
On Wednesday, Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh preferred not to comment on the high court verdict on the pretext that it would be improper for him to comment on the matter outside the House as the assembly was in session. Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee spokesperson Hussain Dalwai, however, termed the entire episode as Patil’s failure.
Shiv Sena and BJP leaders went overboard in criticising Patil for not taking necessary steps to make the ban foolproof. Leader of Opposition in Assembly Ramdas Kadam was the harshest. A BJP leader, requesting not to be named, said, “Not many in the political fraternity were in favour of this ban but since nobody wanted to sound politically and morally incorrect, all parties supported it. The fact is that majority of dance bars in south Mumbai had political workers as their regular customers. They would come to town for their work during the day and visit dance bars in the night.”
One clean chit
The Bombay High Court on Wednesday gave a clean chit to deputy chief minister RR Patil on the allegation of demanding money from dance bar owners. Bar owner and former chairman of Association of Hotels and Restaurants (AHAR) Manjitsingh Sethi had alleged that Patil had demanded Rs12 crores to not impose the ban on dance bars.
“We find that no prima facie case is presently disclosed against the deputy chief minister,” the court held. The judges, however, ordered police commissioner to investigate against NCP workers Vilas Satam and Paresh Patil, who were allegedly dealing with Sethi to get the law amended for change of timings of dance bars for a huge sum. The police have been asked to submit the report within three months.
