World

Mumbai police fine 31 for 'dirty dancing': Report

The raid was for playing music without a licence, but police decided to act after finding dancing "objectionable".

Afp July 04, 2011

MUMBAI: Thirty-one young people have been fined for "indecent" dancing in India's entertainment capital, Mumbai, The Times of India newspaper said on Monday, quoting city police.

Senior officer Mahesh Patil told the daily that the individuals were fined 1,200 rupees ($26) each after a raid on a nightclub in the northern suburb of Malad on Saturday night.

"Ten of the 31 offenders were girls. They were dancing vulgarly in the converted disco, which is considered to be a public place," he was quoted as saying, without elaborating.

The raid, in which 77 people, including diners, were detained altogether, was initially for playing music without a licence, but police decided to act after finding the dancing "objectionable", the daily added.

Patil was not immediately available for comment when contacted by AFP.

News of the raid quickly led to a protest group, Stop Moral Policing in Mumbai, being set up on the social networking site Facebook, calling for the police, certain political parties and individuals to "stop defining indecency".

As well as the Malad incident, it cited the reported arrests of young people holding hands in a western Mumbai suburb in 2007.

The incident comes after the state government of Maharashtra, of which Mumbai is the capital, raised the minimum age for buying and consuming beer from 18 to 21 and spirits from 21 to 25 to combat problem drinking.

The move sparked outrage among young people, who are the mainstay of Mumbai's vibrant nightlife, which is already curtailed by early closing times.

The state has previously tried to close dance bars, where female performers dance to Bollywood tunes, branding them dens of iniquity and fronts for prostitution and the criminal underworld.

But the order was overturned, with a court stating that it violated sections of the Indian constitution guaranteeing "fundamental rights of livelihood".

COMMENTS (13)

Fortune Cookie | 13 years ago | Reply Dr. Saleem Siddiqi, Daily there is a requirement of DOCTORS in PAKISTAN. Your profession is the most important to people living in the land of the PURE. Pakistan has invested in the Thousands in YOU. But you are in South Africa, serving the South African population. Thank YOU very much, indeed. Hope the MONEY and the living condition is good in South Africa.

Fortune Cookie | 13 years ago | Reply @Dr. Saleem Siddiqi. The learned DOCTER found Pakistan to be too HOT for his comfort. He come to South Africa from where he comments on Pakistan, leaving his breatheren in Pakistan in times of need. I hopr your new destination is comforting and the people surrounding you are accomodating. Remember that in sunny South Africa their is no racial descrimination.

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Dr. Saleem Siddiqi | 13 years ago | Reply Mumbai Police - Keep dancing and be intoxicated - - - So that you may not harm any intruding sail boat carrying terrorists to play havoc to the lives of Mumbians. Keep it up at Tax payers money.... Regards Dr. Saleem Siddiqi Johannesburg South Africa

from india | 13 years ago | Reply as long as the youths are not doing drugs and not becoming a nuisance to the society they are free to party ....by the way, under which law they are authorised to impose penalty ?isn't it the court's job to do so ?

Atheist, India | 13 years ago | Reply For all those commenting here without the facts, there was a large quantity of drugs found in this party and the arrests were mainly based on this charge only.

Zoya N. | 13 years ago | Reply @party boy: We need night clubs in Pakistan :) Why do we need night clubs in Pakistan? . @kailash: these stupid police can’t stop underworld dons nor can they do anything to terrorists attacking. How can they? they r busy going after party animals so that they can harass them and demand some money to leave them alone… Oh really? Even as a Pakistani, I have to grant it that your police is doing a lot more than you are grateful for. Consider the fact, and these have been reported here in Pakistani newspapers, that the Mumbai police has averted at least three terrorist events since Mumbai 26/11. In Karachi, we are having a difficult time containing our own police forces, who shot down an innocent 22 year old on live camera in broad daylight. . Suggest you read the comments by Mr. Arora and Mr. Hamied preceding your ill considered and extempore comments. It will give you some food for thought. Unless of course, you are both insistent on further diluting the social standards to which we as South Asians should hold ourselves to, instead of blinding aping the worst examples of degeneration of other cultures. It is bad enough that we don't preserve the traditions of the society we are born into and further dilute our value systems by taking the chaff and not the wheat from the occident. Wisen up. BROTHERS!

kailash | 13 years ago | Reply these stupid police can't stop underworld dons nor can they do anything to terrorists attacking. How can they? they r busy going after party animals so that they can harass them and demand some money to leave them alone...

party boy | 13 years ago | Reply We need night clubs in Pakistan :)

Irfan Hamied | 13 years ago | Reply @yousuf amjad: Morality and conservatism is not the exclusive preserve of any single faith. Conservatism as a political ideology and movement has not been highlighted in the sub-continent and whenever it has been, it has been hijacked by the fundamentalists and the communalists. This has given a very slanted and skewed understanding of the virtues of maintaining traditions and imparting a sense of collective social values to the younger generation. It is the failure of intellectuals who are conservatives, that has allowed this sorry situation to emerge. Because of this all and any wild and weird emulations of foreign ideas, ill suited to our temperament and social structure, is accepted without any serious debate or consideration. A modern secular state need not be one without moral standards. Truly, a modern secular state must have strong morals and standards to be able to set moral standards. India's elites are failing in this respect. Which is why, irrespective of all its economic 'growth', India will not complete its tryst with destiny, in full measure, if it does not take head on these narrow agendas of those who run far and away from its own cultural moorings. And we in Pakistan, need not be so smug either. In India's fast devolution of morality, is a lasting lesson for us. Rather than allow the fundamentalists and communalists full range and control over the conservative spectrum of political ideas and social constructs, our intellectuals, who are also largely silent and guilty too of the same 'crime' against the Pakistani people, just as India's intellectual conservatives are for the 'crime' against the Indian people; we should make common cause with those across the border and challenge this riptide of raunchiness and stem its expansion comprehensively.

Jasjit Arora | 13 years ago | Reply @sumeet: Dear Sumeet. I and many well thinking desis would totally concur with you. Unfortunately, what seems common sense to you and the rest of us, has been destroyed by the poisoned cocktail of amorality ("I am not so sure yaar. It all depends on ..."), relativism (" this is right, but that is also right ..."), empowerment without agency or responsibility (" The feminist ideology of women can do wrong and all men are irresponsible, no matter what ... ") and cultural apathy (" Kaam se kaam rakho, nai nasl ko kuchch bolna, aafat bulaanaa hai bhai... "). . The Stop Moral Policing in Mumbai is the typical reaction of a cossetted comfy nouveau riche (new money) elite that doesn't have a grounding in the traditions of their ancestors nor an education in the liberal arts of the modern day. It is a group that identifies with commercialism and conspicuous consumption to announce its arriviste parvenu status. It is morally bankrupt and the fact that it protests on Facebook rather than publically debate its so-called grievances speaks volumes for their lack of principles and convictions. . Thus it is important that their ilk be challenged at every instance. Else in the not too distant future, India will become the social cesspool which the West has so unfortunately become. It is why we should be monitoring the programmes our children watch, the books they read, the music they listen to, the clothes they wear and the attitudes they adopt. They are the people we allow them to become by the lack of constructive ( not violent ) instructions. . Clearly the elders of these 31 have failed them. Let us not fail our ones.

sumeet | 13 years ago | Reply @Paras Vikmani: is not vulgar dancing comes under the rule of law?why dont give credit when its due to police? regarding the spoiled brats protesting on facebook,it's become a fashion to cry about moral policing.they should first introspect.

Paras Vikmani | 13 years ago | Reply Mumbai Police has no other work to do it seems.

yousuf amjad | 13 years ago | Reply wow,at this rate, we'll have the 'islamic republic of india' very soon.

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