The flame of morality continues to cause palpitations in the loins of our politicians. Maharashtra’s deputy chief minister R.R. Patil, who drove Bombay’s bar dancers out of business, says the cheer girls employed at Twenty20 games and the skimpy clothes they wear are “obscene“. And typically for our politicians (remember Salman Rushdie‘s Satanic Verses being banned on the basis of Syed Shahbuddin‘s review of the book in India Today?), Patil’s threat of “action” comes without the minister examining the evidence.
“I was not present at the India-Australia match but we will go through the tapes before taking any action. I am told their performance was vulgar and their movements left nothing to the imagination,” Patil, who belongs to BCCI president Sharad Pawar‘s Nationalist Congress Party leader has been quoted by The Telegraph as saying.
Is it OK for cheer leaders to whip up excitement and keep the spirits up among spectators in a Twenty20 match, or is it not quite cricket? Are the hip-wiggling actions and jhatka-matka gyrations of the girls vulgar, or are they just a sign of the times? When the girls are not being forced to dance and prance around, does anybody have any business telling them what to do? Don’t our politicians have any better work to do, like say saving Maharashtra’s malnourished children? Or is protecting “Indian culture” from such transgressions more important than such mundane things?
Photo courtesy: Press Trust of India
Patil makes my grandma look progressive and liberated. If the cheerleaders at T-20 were vulgar so is every second Bollywood movie that gets released. Why doesn’t he ban them? It’s time someone started a mass movement against culture policing.
its pretty obv by his statements …he wants to closely look at /review the gyrations of the cheerleaders without the distraction of the match
Useless…
Cheerleaders make the game more lively.
Sure, they may look “obscene” to some people, but mos of the audience enjoyed the dance, just as they enjoyed India’s World-Class performance…
-> 1 crore prize money for one more six than what yuvraj himself conceded in England.
-> Imported Cheer girls.
In other news, a Vidarbha farmer commits suicide every 8 hours.
Atleast one minister in the Union Cabinet has no conscience.
If this is the case with the cheer leaders then all the temples in india should be destroyed as most of the sculptures there leave very little to our imagination. He is only proving how much influence islam has had on hinduism.
if they want to create a spectacle, why cant they use indian movie dancers or even better local folk dancers as cheer leaders? why do we need imported dancers and their stupid routines to pump up the volume?
in bangalore
http://youtube.com/watch?v=FZ3pHARdlKc
in mumbai
http://youtube.com/watch?v=AePCYIvhJLg
and so on and on….
i am sure they can comeup with some catchy pithy battle cries in all languages.
if they want to create a spectacle, why cant they use indian movie dancers or even better local folk dancers as cheer leaders? why do we need imported dancers and their stupid routines to pump up the volume? i am sure they can comeup with some catchy pithy battle cries in all languages. the links are in moderation but can youtube for different styles
before purists yell at me, please remember yakshagana has a prasanga of one of tendulkar’s tons.
>>”If the cheerleaders at T-20 were vulgar so is every second Bollywood movie that gets released.”
Yes. BOTH are vulgar and BOTH need to be put down with an iron hand. As also does the debauchery that passes for fashion shows.
>>” Why doesn’t he ban them? ”
Because those cabaret dancers who pass for film “stars” count millions like you among their fans. And he’s scared of having to face your wrath.
>>”It’s time someone started a mass movement against culture policing.”
NO. Its time someone started a mass movement against people like you who have their heads in their asses and cant tell between stupidity and ‘modernity’, ‘progressive mentality’, ‘broadmindedness’ etc.,. The appalling thing about all this is, in all probability, the girls’ parents were sitting right there cheering them.
Few years ago, I caught a glimpse of the debauched javed jaffri’s dance competition programme on TV (forget what it was called). There was a girl all of 9 or 10 wearing a duppatta. And the bastard(Jaffri) asks her – “What is that duppatta for? Style or modesty?” And the girl replies.. “hmm.. just for style”.
I mean… ok.. I’m all of 25+something.. but wtf?! what is it coming to? We already have parents in India and abroad sending their kids to cabaret dance classes, euphemistically called “Bollywood dance classes”!
Bollywood dancers are routine ..I prefer paarin pigures .
Maybe the unemployed bar dancers can be hired as T20 cheer girls? Everybody would win – the spectators get two shows for the price of one, the girls can get a job again and Mr. Patil should be happy since the dancers are from our ‘Indian Culture’. I am sure the girls can teach cheer leaders worldwide a trick or two.
Obscene in a very different way- as feminists would have it – objectification of women and then its such a stupid American tradition- well there should be equally skimpily clad cheerlads too if anything :)- It just confirms my view that there is nothing original at all in the Indian concept of sports- the core or peripheral issues- we make very sad copycats .
In the recent match at Bombay the girls were not indians! Were they imported? Money talks! Imported Coach, Physio and now Girls!
sisya,
What do you think of burkas? good or bad?
Full frontal nudity would be even better!
It will not be out of place for the Congress to use these imported girls in their forthcoming election campain as they are not Indian girls but imported from Bush family with string attached. Our Congress MP’s must be really happy about this development. Beware Tehelka and our RED friends!
I think they are nice! They make the game palatable–who wants to watch the ‘deadly boring genius batting’ of Kulla? Give me T20 cheer ladies any day!
But DB your fav Tendu kulla doesnt do 20/20. With Dhoni around the only possibility is all cheergirls wld get lots of invites for all kindsa parties!
Gaby
Thank you for the correction. Well we must seriously extend cheer girls and their talents to one-day and test matches! You make Dhoni a man of distinction and taste:)
This (Patil) is the same guy who recently said that Belgaum (marathi) people are treated by Karnataka as British treated erstwhile indians.
It is true, Maharashtrians are oppressed in Karnataka. Bitter truth, however hard it is to accept.
This should be the least of our politicians’ concerns. But when Mr. Pawar prides himself on being the big boss of BCCI more than being agriculture minister, we can expect more of these silly proclamations!!
I caught a glimpse of these T20 cheergirls in Bangalore only when the camera panned to them, after a six or four or a wicket down. They were merely waving and smiling brightly. They looked like part of the cricket ground props. It is another matter that the cricket ground itself has become a mela ground. (Soon, someone may as well add a giant wheel, a splash pool, people on stilts, and so on in the vicinity).
It did not look like they were dominating the proceedings or as if people were watching them all the time. As their dance/movements did not seem provocative, I would equate them to Kids Kemp humans in animal/cartoon avataar/vesha. Whether such “exhibits” are a human rights violation, obscene, cruel, not Indian –are questions that would come and go. Unless there is an untoward incident, a ban may not happen. Some norms may be evolved for cheerleaders in Indian territory though.
Noe these characters in parliament have reduced the public to beggardom
by the stup policies and now they are even interfering with personal freedom. No doubt India is turning out to be country of rapists!
i don’t think that the cheer girls are obscene. they are just for encorage their team.. and as well as to entertain the people also. And there is nothing wrong
with there dance also. 202-20 is diff. format game it is just to entertain the people.
The cheerleaders are not obscene. IPL is.
What IPL has done is to lumpenise cricket. The Harbhajan-Sreesanth episode will go down in the history of this beautiful game as one of the ugliest. It is not really important who between the two was in the wrong — my hunch is that both were equally guilty of misdemeanour — but to what extent this spat has tarnished the fair name of cricket.
I am no stuck up oldie but having been exposed to the gentleman’s game at an early age, I cannot digest the fact that players of the gutter variety are first of all allowed to play, and then to get away with murder. Now, this is not the first time either Harbhajan or Sreesanth has behaved badly. And for them to play alongside the likes of Kumble, Dravid and Tendulkar is to insult these icons who have played as aggressively as anyone else would but without bringing the game into disrepute.
I remember as a kid seeing Prasanna and Pataudi captaining Karnataka and Hyderabad respectively hugging each other while coming out for the toss at those unforgettable Ranji matches in the 1970s. They were fiercely competitive but played in the spirit of the game.
Contrast that with the obscene behaviour of some of the contemporary players. Sad indeed for a great game. IPL may have introduced cheerleaders into cricket but has taken the cheer out of the game.
As we have ruined cricket and the whole world is laughing while Sreesanth is crying and Bhajji is hiding, IPL should quickly come up with some changes. Cheerleaders who were in danger of being thrown-out, may get a fresh lease of life. Of course as I have said in a related posting on Redskins and @tarlesubba here, maybe we can experiment with a local version –Bembalanayakas? Prerane-Kanye? and distract everyone with dollu kunitha and bharatanatya (Bollywood variety –otherwise all the classical dancers will be up-in-arms); Cricketanthu illa…
But if Indian culture vultures are still resisting cheerleaders, IPL which has already contracted Harbhajan can ask him to a temporary “kusti” demo in one corner of the field. Not funny, alva? Aenmadodhu, el thandhu nilsidar nodi.
Sisya is right. Looks like people are bored and mixed up. If T20 is boring maybe a a bar with bar girls is the place for you.
Sisya is an ideal candidate for instant recruitment into the Taliban. After reading several posts on Churumuri and seeing Sisya’s comments in various places, I have a very strong feeling that this ‘Sisya’ is some kind of loser who couldn’t strike it well with the opposite sex in life – know what I mean? I’m leaving a lot to the ‘imagination’ you see.
And it’s not just this post that makes me make this comment.
actually we have function in our family so we need a cheer girls around 10 girls so .pls send details about