MORALITY-THE FIRST REFUGE OF THE CORRUPT

2005 was a year when governance or the lack of it in Maharashtra was badly exposed. We all knew that this was the case all along but events like the July 26th floods and the bogus moralistic posturing by ministers small in thinking as well as stature aggravated the unemployment problem in the State. The subsequent indifferent attitude of the high-court in connection with the Bar Dancers' episode was unexpected and legally unanticipated! Read on.

THE MORALITY GAME
How humans should conduct themselves? What values should they uphold and which ones should they reject? A sense of what is right and what is wrong has plagued humanity right from the dawn of civilization. In this age of consumer choice and the internet, these questions have been reflected in the concerns of not just religious organizations but the administration as well!

Defining morality is a dangerous exercise and can often be a first step in the infringement of the basic rights of an individual. And, when administrations take it upon themselves to intervene and decide upon moral issues the casualties are the twin freedoms of choice and expression. Just as most living things except for those that reproduce asexually, man, too, is a creature of sex. But for our libido, human society would not have existed. Very often, issues of morality are subterfuge for something else-as is the case with the recent debatable banning of the dance bars.

According to a report in a daily tabloid Rs 72 crore is paid annually as bribes by owners of dance bars to cops and politicians. Against this background the ban in the name of morality in this age of MTV,channel V, FTV, dance remixes, raunchy Hindi movies comes as a total surprise.


DISCONNECT BETWEEN ANCIENT AND MODERN INDIA ON FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
Freedom of expression was never a problem with our ancestors as the intricate sexually explicit carvings depicting coitus at Khajuraho and the Sun temple at Konarak testify. The sixty four arts of love-passion-pleasure began in India. Works such as Anangaranga by King Kalyanamala, Kalavilasa by Kashmiri Kshemendra, Kandarpacudamani by King Virabhadra, Ratiratnapradipika by Devaraja, Ratisastra by Nagarjuna Kama Sutra by Vatsyayana bears ample testimony to the fact that sex was not a taboo in ancient Indian society. The Mohenjodaro copper figurines of dancing girls would make today’s dance bar girls seem very modest by comparison! It also speaks volumes about the level of fake puritanism which our governing bodies indulge in for the sake of morality. If we pride ourselves as a living civilization with an amazing continuity with our ancient past, we would well to remind ourselves that bogus Victorian Puritanism was never a part of our heritage.


MORALITY POLICING
The anti-AIDS campaign was also a victim of such moral policing by the Government. The Balbir Pasha Campaign in which a woman suggests sexual intercourse was considered to be too risqué for public taste; all this when the advertisement had been running popularly for over 6 months. Is sex not one of the major routes of transmission for AIDS in India? The inoffensive advert was withdrawn and replaced by a watered down ‘decent’ version which did not carry the message with punch in the manner its previous version did. The government succumbed to pressure from certain ‘elements’ and moved to ban the ad. Morality policing is the hallmark of a retrograde society, the worst example of which was the erstwhile Taliban regime in Afghanistan. According to Rushdie erotica is vital to freedom and a free and civilized society should be judged by its willingness to accept erotica. The dance bar dancers do not come close to erotica in any sense of the term, the people who frequent these places of entertainment are not minors.

What does the administration propose to do about belly dancers in five-star hotels and about Mujras and Lavanis in the homes of the privileged and powerful? In reply to this question posed by a journalist the Government reply was-“We can’t solve all problems at the same time. The rich people have the money and resources to take care of themselves.” This is reminescent of the confusing cryptocommunist attitude of our administrators at the centre who have encouraged the existence of the bidi as a non-carcinogenic economically pro-poor alternative to the urban cigarette which is a heavily taxed carcinogenic no-no!

DIVERTING THE ATTENTION AWAY FROM CONSUMER ISSUES
There is a feeling echoed by many bureaucrats that the whole dance bar girls issue is a deliberate attempt to divert the attention of the consumer from other serious matters plaguing the state such as the difficult power situation. The State Electricity Board is now facing a huge shortfall of 3,625 MW daily during peak hours. The shortfall during off-peak hours is 2,250 MW. The average powerless period in rural areas now extends to six hours and it is almost half in urban areas (except for Mumbai). Also, the state government has been unable to outsource adequate supply. Additionally, the populist policies pursued by this government in giving free power to farmers against which it is required to compensate the state electricity board to the extent of a Rs 400 crore each quarter has starved it of cash. It is in an extremely difficult situation.

Also, the perennial questions of irrigation (Krishna irrigation project), renewal of urban infrastructure, Adult education, rural healthcare, water supply, creation of jobs (supposedly 1 crore, forget the loss of jobs for 75,000 bar girls and 3 lakh male bar workers) and other promises also mentioned in the election manifesto remain very far from fulfillment. In such an ocean of difficult problems that require a strong political will to tackle, the administration is inventing a morality problem with an easy solution: namely, - shut them down, the dance bars and save the aam admi. Never mind development, at least you will have a ‘morally’ strong tomorrow.
- Dr. V. R. Shenoy

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