Email
Print
ShareThe incident on Monday at Kisan Nagar in Thane where local residents led by a Shiv Sena corporator flushed out alleged bar girls from their homes for apparently being a 'bad influence' is another example of the party's endless appetite for causing public nuisance. The Sena has more or less patented this habit of inventing issues and going all out after them to 'solve' them, mostly by exercising brute force rather than mutual agreement. In this case, the local residents rallied behind the Sena activists because they too objected to the bar girls' living in the area. Reportedly, the Sainiks also tried to beat up two girls from the Thane Bar Girls' Association who came to meet the ousted girls.
Throwing people out of their homes is patently illegal, though legal niceties probably mean little to the Sainiks. But yet, the point needs to be stressed -- the bar girls were legal tenants living in the area. Whatever their professions -- and this is not to suggest that they are criminals in any way -- as long as they paid their rent, they cannot be physically removed from their apartments. If, as alleged by some, they were indeed 'entertaining' guests at home and charging for business or doing anything illegal, there are enough laws to deal with it and the appropriate agencies to do so.
The issue is symptomatic of a larger problem in cities -- self-styled busybodies acting as the moral police -- which is reminiscent of primitive social behaviour and beliefs in rural societies. This problem that has its roots in the settlement patterns of migrants who carry their morality with them, while trying to eke out a living in or around urban centres. In the smaller suburban townships, this propensity is higher, because they are not totally cosmopolitan and are still linked to the hinterland. For the Sena, with its strongly bourgeoisie mindset, this provides fertile ground.
What is unfortunate is that the state or its arms like the police more often than not fail to crack the whip on the dominant group, especially when they take on a mob-like character. That the victims were bar girls is largely besides the point -- tomorrow they could be some other socially disadvantaged group or indeed someone holding certain religious beliefs who could be turfed out from their homes. Their fundamental rights cannot be violated by these so-called guardians of public morality. It is important that the authorities step in and ensure that the oustees are given back their place of residence and the miscreants caught and punished. Turning a blind eye would only encourage other such moral vigilantes.
