Dance bar owners raise a toast to Patil’s exit

STATE home minister RR Patil’s exit has fuelled a speculation that dance bars could be back in business in some form or the other. The strongest critic of the dance bar culture, Mr Patil had banned these bars three years back.

The bar owners have already started raising a toast. “Whatever may be the reason, it’s a positive development as far as we are concerned,” said Manjit Singh Sethi, president of the Dance Bar Owners’ Association and the most visible face to protest against Mr Patil’s crackdown. “Since the case is still pending with the Supreme Court, we are not expecting that things will be immediately restored.

At least now there will be some progress in the case,” he added. For the past 25 years, dance bars were an integral part of Mumbai’s vibrant nightlife and were even featured as tourist attractions. The flashy nightclubs, which were very popular among a wide cross-section of the city’s populace, were banned after the government said the bars had a corrupting influence on the youth and even promoted flesh trade.

The ban downed the shutters on more than 1,000 bars in the city, forcing about 1,50,000 people jobless, including 75,000 bar girls. The move had sparked protests from social activists who said that the government had denied the right to livelihood of those working in the bars.

The ban also collapsed a 50-year-old financing system. It broke a Rs 250-crore private-finance industry that helped stewards set up their own bars, restaurants and even financed ‘Udupi’ chains all over the country.