It's all about shaming and hounding

The last-minute cancellation of the much-anticipated Lucky Ali concert at the Hard Rock Café is the latest in a list of ‘crackdowns’ and ‘bans’ on youth-related activities in Pune. It is yet another symptom of the absurd attitudes of the law enforcement agencies in this city. Organizers of events from now on will think thrice before putting Pune on their gig map. But then perhaps that is exactly what some section of the police force as well as the vigilante variety of citizens want?
Cops routinely harass bar and lounge owners and their patrons right from 10 pm, to start winding down, in spite of the deadline being 11.30pm. Young people having fun seems to be the crime - the recent Maya lounge episode became more about ‘shaming’ the young women who were having a perfectly legitimate nice time, rather than about the place not having a liquor license. If you really want to crack down on illegal activities, there is a perfectly decent and logical way to do it, by dropping in on the owners. But bearing down on the clientele and having the press splash their faces on their front page seems the way the cops prefer to do it here. Soft targets are so much easier.
The world over, the cops are out there, no doubt, on weekends, keeping a strict eye on youngsters. But their mandate is clearly to curb drunk driving, brawls, sexual harassment, and to standby with medical attention. You may call the weekend scene outside a London hotspot rather hedonistic – with youngsters puking, staggering, brawling, losing parts of their clothing…and it’s often not a pretty picture. But the focus of the police force is not to ‘shame’ and ‘punish’ anyone who is enjoying a drink and a dance and letting their hormones jump around in joy. That is definitely not the business of the state. The business is to ensure safety and to see to it that other citizens are not disturbed or endangered by any one’s behaviour.
What we have here, though, is policemen and ‘city elders’ playing finger-wagging angry aunties, shutting down music programs, commenting on the clothes that women choose to wear to a pub, and deriving grim satisfaction from pooping the party. The world over, post weekend partying, IDs are checked, breathalyzers are used, roads are policed for speeding and other traffic violations. But that seems to be the least important part of the agenda in Pune. It is moral policing that seems to be of paramount importance.
We will see during this coming Ganesh Festival time, like we do every year, that deadlines and decibel levels are thrown into the Mula-Mutha, roads are being gouged over the last week for pandals, so that mandals can disrespectfully plonk a much-loved idol right in the middle of a street (where’s the reverence in that?). The music played at most of these pandals ranges from the rowdy to the riotous. Even if recorded devotional stuff is played, it is so loud, that it is utter disrespect for our gods as well as our well-known singers whose abhangs and aartis are distorted beyond recognition by the sheer size of the speakers. As for dancing – some of the most suggestive and obscene dancing can be seen during the processions and in the evenings around the pandals into the wee hours of the night. Pune city during these festivities is a cauldron of hazards – electricity, fire, obstructions, uncontrolled crowds, pickpocketing, groping of women, and of course the decibel levels from which babies, senior citizens, and hapless creatures nearly die, every year. But somehow this does not outrage the moral/ethical sensibilities of cops or vigilantes. And that’s because there is that wonderful smokescreen of ‘Indian bhakti and tradition’ to these events. Whereas, open air concerts, lounges, bars, dancing is all tarred by the ‘westernization’ brush and that becomes instantly a sign of the ‘shamelessness of youth’.
We are a city that, in line with much of this great country, is getting very very comfortable with official hypocrisy, harassment, and hooliganism.