Cops and Censors

Maharashtra is treading a well-beaten track. It is a ploy lazy, incompetent rulers have resorted to down the ages. When they have no substan...

Maharashtra is treading a well-beaten track. It is a ploy lazy, incompetent rulers have resorted to down the ages. When they have no substantial programmes for enriching the cultural and material lives of the citizenry, they rustle up phantoms. They go about slaying them, to give an impression of activity, of wholesome projects unfolding to transport the people to new tomorrows. It is unfortunate that the government of Maharashtra has chosen this option. One of India8217;s richest and most vibrant states, it is now inexplicably in the throes of a morality binge. The Congress-NCP government 8212; mind you, months after being returned to power 8212; is furiously cultivating an inward-looking constituency. And Mumbai, the country8217;s most cosmopolitan city, is the battleground for this war on 8220;obscenity8221;. In this scheme of things, films already cleared for broadcast are being censored at neighbourhood thanas. Dance bars are being ordered shut. And books with even the faintest whiff of a slur on Maratha heroes have already been banned.

Cynics will cite a pattern in this moral policing. The Congress-NCP combine clearly sees the Shiv Sena8217;s constituency as being up for grabs. Much before state elections a bid for this votebank was already made when the Bhandarkar institute in Pune was vandalised, just because Shivaji8217;s controversialised biographer sought research material there. Now, instead of focussing on numerous infringements of the law that keep Mumbai8217;s seamy underground ticking 8212; with, as a series of disclosures have shown, the active connivance of its police force 8212; Home Minister R.R. Patil is positioning himself as custodian of morality. A strong anti-outsider current, for instance, is perceptible in the move against bar girls. It is a point being underlined by hints that alternative jobs will be found for the small percentage of these women who happen to be Maharashtrian.

The issue here is not the merits or dangers of dance bars. At stake in Mumbai is the contest between a few persons8217; idea of morality never the most definable of ideals and the rule of law. In the city8217;s governance, which of the two will dictate the state8217;s agenda? As former Mumbai Police Commissioner Julio Rebeiro wrote in this newspaper on Wednesday, it is the government8217;s duty to regulate, not peddle commodities like morality. The contest, do keep in mind, will have great implications for the idea of Mumbai.