Go-go ban

The Bombay high court has struck down the Maharashtra government8217;s ban on dance bars as unconstitutional. It has also given the state time to file an appeal. That is a temptation the Vilasrao Deshmukh government must refuse to rush into. After months of impetuous paternalism, it must see the order for what it is: the return of reason in public policy. Ever since the government 8212; and most specifically, Home Minister R.R. Patil 8212; initiated action against dance bars, illiberalism has sloshed ever more dangerously with populism. The ban was, to begin with, an attempt at moral policing. But in his aggressiveness to join every counter-argument, Patil at every stage upped the ante and threatened to make over Bombay with conservativism, xenophobia and hypersensitive nationalism. The city deserves this respite in order to repossess its large-hearted welcome to ideas and immigrants.

In the end, the government lost the argument in court over an anomaly, over the exemptions it allowed for dance performances in theatres, but not in premises offering food and drink. It is proof of the absurdity implicit in micromanagement of a society8217;s entertainment options. But the case also highlights the importance of honouring a citizen8217;s right to free choice. The state has a role in regulating that right so that it does not provide cover for coercion, or for inflicting harm upon others. But the government8217;s case that it was protecting bar-girls, who did not have freedom to refuse to be in the business and were even being harassed into prostitution, was specious. The state does bear the responsibility to prevent coercion 8212; but that is a task best accomplished through partnership with civil society.

Instead, the Deshmukh government was inciting a conservatism that dwells latently in most societies in the throes of change. It was, so obviously, seeking to harness moral outrage at a time when its premier custodian in Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena, was seen to be fragmenting. It is a project that must be abandoned.