Just when there is talk of the Indian Premier League (IPL) making Indian sporting history, the Maharashtra government has decided you can't keep cheering on.
The state government has asked IPL team franchisees to apply for permits before cheerleaders can be allowed to perform in Mumbai. The move came as a response to politicians who alleged the cheerleaders were “vulgar”.
See what the moral cops had to say:
“They will first have to take our permission. We will allow them on the condition that there’s nothing vulgar in their performance,” said Home Minister Siddharam Mhetre. Opposition leaders in the legislature on Wednesday said that if bar dancers were banned for promoting immorality then cheerleaders were no less obscene.
“The way the cheerleaders dance in the cricket match is very vulgar. It is even worse than the bar dancers. NCP, especially RR Patil, should say whether they are going to ban the cheerleaders or not,” said BJP president, Maharashtra Nitin Gadkari.
And guess what, Mhetre has a solution too:
"We live in India where womanhood is worshipped. How can anything obscene like this can be allowed?" he asked. Mhetyre wondered why the organisers require "semi- nude" women to entertain people at cricket matches.
"The organisers may have invested crores of rupees organising such matches. But this does not mean that they make semi-nude women dance in front of people," he said.
Mhetre suggested organisers can use animated characters when players hit boundaries and six or anybody gets out without scoring.
If the home minister were interested in his real job, he would be more concerned about chasing underworld elements in his state than short-skirted cheerleaders. Scantily-clad female non-Indians are easy targets, isn't it?
