Politics of the Leg and the Peg

In Mumbai, the dancing bars are in every neighborhood, have balooned over this decade, and are also an indication of new wealth. Clearly, they represent a very large bussiness, and their is little that is ``illegal`` about them. Also, the neghbors dont seem to resent them, as they (mostly owned by the Shettys) seem to conduct their bussiness with little or no disturbance. So, just as the illegal cable bussiness became legal over time, these bars will also become more mainstream. Heck, when we were kids, dancing to bollywood songs (it used to be called ``record dance`` then) was only for the lower class. Now you will see even school functions and NRI events proudly supporting their kids with much enthuthiasm. The 5-6th entury chinese scholar (Xuan?) was right in his obervations..Indian are very clean people, who take bath twice a day, wear makeup, wear nice cotton clothes, and easily break into song and dance.

``....Though it is clear that a police raid means no money for cops, it could mean using state machinery to apply the squeeze. Elections are still only hotting up. .............``

I think you are living in a delusion. It could very well be another way to ``rationalize`` the Hafta system by the present Commissioner. Now the haftas would be collected and delivered from one point to the guys on the top to be shared with the political bosses.

And the fact of the matter is that the haftas which would mostly be going down to the local SHO would now be reduced to half as the result. These raids happened probably because the local SHO was underreporting the haftas collected to the DCP. The CP must have made his rough calculation and found that he is being provided wrong collection figures by the local SHOs. So now he wants the bar agents to feed his share of the haftas directly. This way CP would cut down his relience upon the SHO in collection matters and negotiate directly from a position of strength.
This is an old strategy.

Frankly speaking I would like some one `arrested` by the cops in those bars to scr$w these rascal cops in the courts. I would like to discuss the legal provisions behind these `arrests`.

Ansai # 12

Yes. I have been to some Bars in Dubai - Also in New York, Hamburg, Athens. Even Napier Barracks in Karach & Heera Mandi in Lahore.

But Dubai management has been more successful in drawing that thin line between the outright expoitation of the sex seller & customer. Same is true to some extent in Europe.

But the police or law enforcing agencies in both India & Pakistan work with exactly the same mentality. They expoit the Bar Wallas & Bar Wallahs exploit the persons who carry minimum influence or say in the socity.

(Pls address me as just nazar - that is more comfortable to me)

Nazar uncle: from what Harish writes, and I`m sure some other Indian friends can confirm for us, I believe Chandni Bar is quite accurate. There are similar bars in the UAE, catering to each of the various nationalities that populate the country - on any given night, even in a town as quiet as Al Ain, you can find an Indian bar, a Pakistani bar, a Lebanese bar, etc., replete with dancing girls, alcohol and sexually-frustrated men. It`s gruesome.

Ansari # 8

This ``Chandni Bar`` was such a heart-wrenching gruesome movie that I could barely watch it. I hope it does not happen like this in Bombay.

Yeah, a cynical explanation and probably close to the truth.

Harish, good insightful article.

Harish: good to see you back! hope all`s well.

---

Feroz: next time you go get dvd`s, ask the man to give you Chandni Bar

Ras:

what irony;)

of all the threads you had to paste that editorial on Zulfi here on Politics of the Leg and the Peg

My apologies for borrowing your board ....


25 years ago today Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was executed in Pakistan



A Nation Editorial 4-4-04


The shadow still looms
TWENTY-five years ago to this day, near dawn, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Prime Minister and murder convict, was hanged in Adiyala Jail, Rawalpindi. The jail has since come down, a generation has passed, but Bhutto’s legacy still remains, and his shadow still looms large in our national politics. Bhutto was designed by the Almighty larger than life. In few men are mixed so many amazing virtues, so many disturbing flaws. A psychoanalyst might make much of the inner tensions which made Bhutto what he was, both good and bad, and perhaps speculate how these may have helped him achieve so much. Even his worst opponents would agree that Bhutto was a great man, if not necessarily a good one. He was the product of a martial law, but he climbed to the political pinnacle by rebelling against it. But his political life was bedevilled by the civil-military equation. His relationship with Yahya Khan, and his role in the break-up of Pakistan, will perhaps never be fully known, but it is doubtful that it was as villainous as his opponents depict, or as benign as his defenders insist. Though he took power as Pakistan’s only civilian CMLA, he had a golden opportunity to rid the polity of Bonapartism, but his use of the Army in Baluchistan and then during the PNA Movement allowed the military a toehold. His democratic aspirations clashed with his autocratic temperament, and he drove the opposition of his time so far against the wall that it welcomed military intervention. He not only polarised domestic politics, but introduced fresh abuses. And it is an only partially explained paradox that this liberal bon vivant introduced so many Islamic symbols, like banning drinking and making Friday the weekly holiday.
His political legacy is mixed. His party has outlived him, not as a fossil, but as a vibrant political force, the highest vote-getter in 2002. But Bhutto might not recognise today’s PPP. His PPP had been a vehicle of social transformation, which gave the voiceless a voice, which broke the shackles of class, caste, tradition and all those bonds which made even the victims accept injustice. It is now very much part of the status quo, with its fair share of plutocrats and opportunists. Yet Bhutto himself had initiated this process with his ticket selections in 1977. And Bhutto perhaps contributed to the change by the nature of his party’s main appeal: its socialistic economic policies. Those have now become outdated, and the spurts of nationalisation did more harm than good. Ms Bhutto did well to quietly jettison much of this baggage in the 1980s.
While Bhutto may have shown lack of vision both in economic affairs and in developing a democratic polity, his vision was much clearer in the arena of diplomacy and national security. His decision to develop nuclear weapons was the most prominent example, but so was his revival of the OIC as a platform, his major thrust on indigenisation (which can be seen in the shape of the Pakistan Steel Mills, the Heavy Mechanical Complex and other such basic industries), and his stout resistance to Indian hegemony at the nadir of our history. Bhutto did stand for something. He asked for neither a deal nor any mercy when threatened with the gallows. Both in his statesmanship and his courage, he now seems a giant compared to those who came after him. His mark on Pakistan’s history will remain indelible, though the debate will probably never end as to whether this mark was for better or worse.

Re Harish

Welcome back to the front lines! :)

It was an interesting to read a side of Mumbai, which was not known to me.

Ciao

Hi Harish:

Good to see you back here...

I agree that it is the timing of the attack that is suspect. However, I am not so sure that a mere ten per cent work as CSWs. It is on a much larger scale. However, often the clients do not agree to pay premium rates because even in drunken stupor they do a quick calculation of pre-coital titillation versus coital potential/rates. The clients would much rather step out into the designated red-light areas if they want more...

There are quite a few who patronise these dance bars only to `relax`. Such places also provide a good cover for criminal-police networking.

#3

Very plausible explanation IMO.

Does a dance bar owner get a partial refund of his hafta if the same cop he is paying it to, hauls him off to prison?

harish:

just a quick note to welcome back...will comment on the contents later...if....

t

Harish
There is another possible explanation.

It was always interesting to observe the programming of Doordarshan in the cusp period between one elected government`s term and the next`s. It improved considerably!

The phenomenon gave one to understand that there ARE some government employees/departments out there who wish to do their job as it should be done, who make the most of this period characterised by the election code of conduct and minimum political interference.