Now, politics with dummies

There is a strong conservative streak beneath Mumbai's cosmopolitan
surface and politicians know how to mine it

With so many problems troubling the sprawling metropolis of Mumbai —
garbage collection, infectious diseases and of course potholes —
anyone would think that the city's municipal corporators would be
working overtime to find some solutions. Instead, their time and
attention is being spent on trying to clean up the moral turpitude of
the citizens. They have declared war on mannequins — yes, those
expressionless plastic dolls — on display inside and outside shops
that sell women's lingerie. (Presumably, those mannequins that wear
saris will remain unaffected.)

It all began with a municipal corporator belonging to the Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) who declared these mannequins were embarrassing to
women and also evoked lusty and even criminal feelings in men. Plus,
not surprisingly, they also represented corrupt western culture, since
they were usually found wearing lacy — and therefore racy — lingerie.
Every time she passed the roadside stalls and shops in her
constituency — the middle-class, central Mumbai suburb, Ghatkopar —
and saw these lifeless models clad only in bras and other
unmentionables, she was appalled. So she asked the Municipal
Corporation to do something about it.

'Against Indian culture'

It would have remained as a politician's personal view, but it
escalated. Her idea appealed to the Mayor, Sunil Prabhu, who belongs
to the Shiv Sena, which is an ally of the BJP. He immediately put it
to vote and the 227-member general body of the BMC passed a resolution
demanding that the Municipal Commissioner frame a policy on "indecent
display in public areas." This will give powers to civil officials to
order shopkeepers to remove a mannequin if they think it is dressed in
a way that will "provoke" men to commit crimes against women.

Naturally, shopkeepers are appalled at this blatant intrusion into
their commercial affairs and even the BMC's own officials are reported
to have cried off from taking on this responsibility, stating that
such matters would come under the police. The municipality's
responsibility ends at ensuring no zoning laws are broken by
encroaching on public space; enforcing public morality is not their
problem.

The corporator, Ms Tawade, and her colleagues, especially from the BJP
and the Sena, put up a defence of their demand, which centred mainly
on the "against Indian culture" line and its alleged connection with
crimes against women. To many citizens, the whole matter looked silly
and moral policing of the worst kind. This is how the city reacted, if
one were to go by the mocking comments in newspapers and on social
media.

It would be a mistake to think that there are no supporters of this
kind of thinking. They may not write to the newspapers, may not tweet
or post on their Facebook account and also not appear on talk shows,
but the municipal corporators, who represent citizens at grass-roots
level, do understand their constituency well. They know that however
progressive Mumbai might appear on the surface, there is a strong
conservative streak that remains invisible. Unsaid, at least openly,
is the divide between those who believe in "Indian culture" and the
deracinated elite which has embraced foreign ways. Every now and then,
this conservatism comes out into the open, startling those who nurture
fond notions of the city's liberal — and westernised — ethos.

Policing Marine Drive

In the 1990s, a prominent Shiv Sena leader, Pramod Navalkar began a
campaign against canoodling couples on the Marine Drive promenade. In
a city devoid of privacy, Marine Drive — and several other similar
spots such as seafronts and parks — offer a degree of anonymity to
youngsters. The couples are usually left alone by passers-by but
Navalkar wasn't going to and went after them.

He is long gone, but public display of affection (PDA) is frowned upon
by not just politicians but also the police. Couples routinely report
being harassed by the police who ask them to leave if found to be
getting too intimate. Some months ago, a boy was taken to the police
station because he gave a peck on the cheek of a female friend.

Last year's onslaught on drinking places and nightclubs was greeted by
many Mumbai residents who said they worried that their children were
getting corrupted. They even supported the aggressive tactics of
Assistant Commissioner Dhoble who used to carry a hockey stick to
frighten errant bar owners and had been caught on video pushing a few
people around.

Bar dancers

More often than not, while all kinds of reasons for taking any action
are advanced — alien cultural practices, legal technicalities or even
security — the conservative impulse hides a reformist mindset. In
2005, the Minister of Home, R.R. Patil, banned bar dancers all over
the State, claiming that many migrants from Nepal and Bangladesh were
in the trade. But Mr. Patil has long harboured a reformist zeal to
banish social ills, much like Anna Hazare, who backed the minister to
the hilt. It did not matter that thousands of young girls were thrown
out of work overnight — the government did not for a moment consider
that they be given some economic help or rehabilitation. All that
mattered was that the morals of the public, especially lustful men,
were protected.

In the case of mannequins, no jobs will be lost and no one but the
shopkeepers who find the dummies useful to advertise their wares will
really be affected. Undoubtedly, the vendors will find a way to get
around this rule too. It is not a major issue that affects the public
in any significant way. But this is yet another example of the assault
on the broad-mindedness of Mumbai by the forces of reaction, which
diminishes this city bit by bit.