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Papri Sri Raman in Madras
Police in Madras are out on a cultural policing spree, banning nightclubs for promoting behaviour that apparently doesn't conform to the Indian way.
All discotheques in the Tamil Nadu capital and its southern outskirts have been ordered shut.
City police commissioner K Muthukaruppan told protesting journalists: "All sorts of dances by half-dressed men and women are allowed in the discotheques."
He said hotels in the city had acquired permission to 'run cultural centres', but were actually running 'dance shows that do not conform to Indian culture'.
The police have warned that any entrepreneur promoting 'such activities' (running nightclubs) would be 'dealt with sternly'.
Muthukaruppan also said that 'publicity material for condoms' was being confiscated as 'they carry nude pictures and promote pornography'.
The discos ordered to shut down just before the weekend are Hell Freezes Over, Gatsby 2000 at Park Sheraton and Klub 53 at Ambassador Pallava.
The HFO had reopened just a month ago after being shut down in May.
'Theme dances' at top hotels like the Taj Connemera have also been stopped.
The Wave, a disco at Pentamedia's multi-mall shopping and theatre complex Mayajal, which opened on the East Coast Road on Madras's outskirts only in January this year, had been ordered to shut down in September.
The discotheque at the Fishermen's Cove holiday resort, also on East Coast Road, about 65 km south of Madras, was also shut, along with EC 41, another popular weekend nightclub on the same road.
"All the fun of living is now gone," lamented young automobile engineer Naveen Kamath, who works for a multinational car company just outside Madras.
"Where do we go after the hard work all week? And what is wrong with dancing? We can't be dancing Bharatanatyam (a classical Indian dance form) all evening," he said.
The Hotels and Restaurants Association Federation is also upset with the ban.
It has asked the Tamil Nadu government to review the order.
Federation president M P Purshottaman called the ban 'yet another blow to the hospitality industry', noting that it came at a time when the tourism industry in India was in a slump.
"There were such orders in New Delhi and Bombay, but the governments have relaxed now," a tourism industry official pointed out, adding that the ban would certainly discourage tourism in Madras.
Some see the ban as a political move.
After offering to support the Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government's proposed anti-terrorism ordinance, this call for 'conformity to Indian culture' is being seen another sign of the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhangam's attempt to befriend the BJP.
It is also seen as an attempt to contain the DMK's interests in Madras.
Dayanidhi Maran, son of DMK leader and Commerce Minister Murasoli Maran, is a stakeholder in the city's most popular and crowded discotheque HFO that has been ordered shut.
Bowling alleys run by Madras Mayor M K Stalin's son Udayanidhi are also reportedly being targeted.
Indo-Asian News Service
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