In a Taliban-style act of moral policing, the Maoists in Bihar forced a dance show to stop midway because they thought the girls dancing on stage were scantily dressed and that their gestures to the tunes of film songs were vulgar.
This action by the left wing rebels signals their carving of a new strategy of social action and could eventually lead to targeting politicians in Bihar who are often found relishing similar dance shows and sometimes even organise them, said analysts. The rebels have so far never ventured to decide tastes in popular performing arts.
A band of armed Maoists swooped on a crowded song-and-dance programme in the southern Aurangabad district on Sunday night and forced the dancing girls to stop, said sources. They asked the show’s organisers to stop the performances saying they were vulgar. Too afraid, the organisers readily agreed and ended the show abruptly. They did not lodge any complaint with the police.
Allegations of vulgarity in stage shows involving women dancers have been frequent across Bihar, but the issue remains of little concern and consequence because politicians often patronise such programmes to amuse their voter base.
RJD leader and former MP Prabhunath Singh, who alleged that the free bicycles given to Bihar’s schoolgirls by the NDA government was making them morally corrupt, organised a 20-20 cricket tournament in Chapra by getting cheer-girls to dance last week. The tournament, organised in memory of Singh’s mother, was attended by a host of senior RJD leaders. Yuvaraj Sudhir Singh, the ex-MP’s kin, said about the cheer-girls: “What is wrong if people get to see right in this village what they have to go to the cities to see?”
Just weeks after results of the Bihar Assembly polls were announced last year, a Congress candidate was seen merrily dancing with scantily dressed bargirls and showering cash on them on stage. An MLA from Bihar’s ruling JD(U), Shyam Bahadur Singh, had caused embarrassment to chief minister Nitish Kumar by his drunken dancing with bar girls in February 2010. In July, the JD(U) had roped in bar girls to entertain crowds waiting to welcome its national president Sharad Yadav at a workers’ meeting in Sitamarhi.