Maha Moralists

Mumbai is being taken to the cleaners. Literally. It will soon no longer be “contaminated” by the “offensive” entertainment provided by bar girls gyrating under strobe lights in the few hundred bars that are operating in its territory. This move, Deputy Chief Minister R.R. Patil informs us, is in the “larger interest of the state”. Curious this. Don’t the “larger interests of the state” require the addressing of, well, the larger issues? Issues like drought-proofing the state, or providing urban infrastructure to its burgeoning towns and cities, or ensuring that its infants in places like Malegaon don’t die prematurely? Surely “larger interests” are not about micro-managing an individual’s personal morality, the manner he/she chooses to earn a livelihood or spend money or be entertained?

It is this that gives the Maharashtra government’s latest move a patina of bad faith. It seems to be inspired more by the mindset of the frustrated hafta-collector rather than by people with a forward-looking vision or a modernist vision. Every major metropolis has its night life — and bars and dancing bars are very much a part of the culture of urban entertainment the world over. The government’s concern should end at ensuring that these areas are relatively secure and free of crime. By overstepping this line, by playing the role of the moral police, it will only end up driving the trade underground. The normalcy that had hitherto characterised it — and which allowed for a degree of transparency and accountability — will now disappear, and the mafia could step in with a vengeance. The bar girls, who have a measure of autonomy today, who can choose whether to work in this profession or leave it, could be driven into the clutches of organised prostitution networks. The “illegal” variant of the trade is in fact likely to really damage the cultural and social fabric of the city.

The point repeatedly stressed in these columns bears repetition. The business of any government is to govern. To lay down the law and ensure that it is observed, in letter and spirit. It is certainly not the business of the government to transmogrify itself into guardians of culture or wield morality like a blunt instrument. Mumbai is a city that has thrived on the freedoms of its citizens and, indeed, on the common sense of the majority of them. Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and his deputy had better note this. Mumbai’s citizens do not need a nanny state, so get off their backs.