Playing Morality with a Hockey Stick

I remember a time in the ’90s,while growing up in Mumbai,the most secular,liberal and cosmopolitan city in India,when a right-wing party swept into power. Raids on bars,rounding up of patrons and harassment of homosexuals were de rigueur those days. These acts of intimidation were carried out under the pretext of preserving the moral fabric of the society. I recall being trapped in a bar one night,with some prominent citizens,when the frightened owner switched off all the lights and music and kept his cowering patrons captive for over half an hour simply because the Minister of Culture was on the prowl outside. That there wasn’t any casualty in that cramped,windowless space that night,was a miracle.

The next evening I had a drink with the same Minister,who confessed that he had only swung by the bar with some friends to enjoy a tipple but,to his dismay,found that it was shut. He embarrassedly explained that for a right-wing party,it was important to flex the morality muscle to appease the mass base that had swept them into office.

However,Mumbaikars soon voted the Congress back into power and all pseudo-secular,armchair liberals like myself breathed a sigh of relief that it would be business as usual in the city famous for its maxim,‘Live and Let Live’.

Whilst the Sri Ram Sene wreaked havoc in Bangalore on Valentine’s Day,Mumbaikars were chuffed that the fascists were no longer messing with their city. Bars remained opened late,young lovers could hold hands in public,gays could party freely and all seemed tickety-boo until ACP Vasant Dhoble,hockey stick in hand,single-handedly struck fear into the hearts of the denizens of sin city.

Head of the Social Service Branch of the Mumbai Police,Dhoble has been on the warpath for months,making headlines for raiding and assaulting restaurant staff at hip restaurants,small eateries,private parties or dance bars. At a juice centre in Vile Parle,he chose a hockey stick to assault waiters. After his recent raid on an Oshiwara restaurant,two women have filed defamation cases against Dhoble for branding them ‘prostitutes’. Last week,the ACP entered an upscale restaurant in central Mumbai and began videotaping the venue,first scaring away clients,then charging the restaurant for overcrowding.

I have had the pleasure of spending an evening with Arup Patnaik,Mumbai’s Commissioner of Police. He is a Doon School educated,well-read man with a good sense of humour and I came away thrilled that such a deserving IPS officer was helming the Mumbai constabulary. The incumbent Chief Minister of Maharashtra,Prithviraj Chavan,is an informed,BITS,Pilani,and Berkley educated liberal. It is,therefore,all the more mind-boggling how such erudite men can allow bullies to intimidate those they have sworn to serve and protect.

Sitting on a moral high horse to cite absurd,archaic laws to mitigate their actions,it is reprehensible that a handful of vigilantes are terrorising the populace.

Political history,it seems,has come full circle in Mumbai. And if one fascist government was voted out for its excesses,it’s not hard to imagine that another one may soon be shown the door.

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