Despite growing criticism and damaging comparisons made with the ills generally associated with the Opposition RJD, Bihar’s ruling JD(U) carries on its fascination with bar girls and their song-and-dance shows as a ploy to gather crowds.
The party roped in bar girls yet again on Saturday — this time to entertain crowds waiting to welcome its national president Sharad Yadav at a workers’ meeting in the northern town of Sitamarhi. The town was decorated with flashy welcome arches bearing the JD(U)’s posters and photographs of Mr Yadav and chief minister Nitish Kumar. As JD(U) workers stood in queues along the roads with garlands in hands, they were entertained by a team of bar girls dancing to Bhojpuri film and album songs.
This is the second occasion in a month when the JD(U)’s use of dancing girls to gather crowds has come to the spotlight. During the NDA-sponsored nationwide bandh on July 5, JD(U) leaders in Patna district had roped in bar girls to entertain the party’s supporters protesting on the streets. This was criticised by Opposition parties and Bihar’s intelligentsia, prompting the ruling party to order an inquiry.
JD(U) MLA Shyam Bahadur Singh had organised an all-night dance show by bar girls at his house in Patna to entertain people coming from across the state to attend a convention of the party the next day in February. Mr Singh himself danced in a drunken condition with the bar girls and had to later apologise to chief minister Nitish Kumar. “The dance by bar girls is one of the arrangements we have done to welcome our party chief here. There are various other kinds of arrangements for people attending this programme,” said JD(U) worker Sukhit Rai as he stood in line with hundreds of JD(U) workers to garland Mr Yadav in Sitamarhi. JD(U) leaders declined to comment on the whole affair.