Cheerleaders, dancing girls, half necked in highly objectionable manner, have been employed by IPL management to entertain the audience, during the cricket matches being played. The introduction of this exotic item has drawn the controversy, being against Indian culture.
The way it is discussed in media, it looked as if it is a solitary case being protested. It is not so. For this one has to go about 30 years back, since India is subjected to western culture invasion through movies, T.V., print media and school education. To day cheerleaders are the extreme, as they make the display of their bodies scantly covered above and below the waist, inciting young ones to peep through. Irony is this that this tournament is patronised and managed by young leaders of a political party, film stars and top industrialists, who are always mentally obsessed for money, and morality has no place with them.
During discussion on T.V. channels the advocates of the kind of obscenity, dubbed protesters the Taliban, moral police, moreover who has given them right to set up morality rules. This way they tried to justify such performances by calling it an art, being liked and appreciated, by the elites in western countries.
First let us talk about Taliban. This is to emphasise that they are different, as they believe in gun culture. They only follow the fundamentals of their religion and do not allow the women to go out for education, and work side by side with men. Women are forcibly confined to four walls.
Now, the question is whether a woman should be allowed to display nude to entertain the people and earn livelihood. Certainly not! Here the protagonists have crossed Lakshman Rekha. That is why they face protests.
They also say, morality lies in the mind and depends upon the man that how he perceives it. But do the young one'senjoy such shows with this type of thinking in the mind? The fact is young one'sparticularly the teenagers excitingly rush to see such scenes, which often so horribly impact their minds, that they suffer nervous disorders, and some times indulge in sexual criminality.
Imagine such performance percolate down to school and college level in the name of art and culture. Then what will happen? These will help to spread obscenity like a virus over a period in the society. Already there is a pressure to force sex education in educational institutions. This is bound to allure boys and girls to see the nude scenes and indulge in free discussion on sex, which may often end up in sexual intercourse. Shri Dina Nath Batra of Shiksha Bachao Andolan, who is fighting against such evils had revealed that in western countries now school managements are engrossed with the problem to provide abortion facilities to the girls in the schools itself. This is the end result which one has to forsee, as it may ultimately cause down fall of the society.
It is really surprising when advocates of such shows question, as to who can lay down the morality rules. In that case they need to be shown a mirror to divert their attention from the glamour of the west. Once they see through the mirror of the past they will be blessed to know and learn about number of saints, social scientists, reformers who selflessly lead the society on moral and religious values from time to time. To name some?Swami Vivekananda, Swami Dayanand, Guru Nanak, Poet Rabindra Nath Tagore, Rishi Arbindo, Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Pt. Ishwar Chand Vidya Sagar, Mahatma Gandhi, Pt. Madan Mohan Malviya, Raj Rishi Parshotam Dass Tondon, Dr. Radha Krishnam. They were all embodiment of Bhartiya ideals and culture, and widely revered in the masses. Such persons would never approve vulgarity being shown in movies, TVs and recently through cheer leader girls. The young leadership has gone astray from the path shown by these great persons.
Swami Vivekananda had said, that materialism from the west will come, but we have to save our values to fight against its evil effects on the society. Whether the present leadership, intellegencia are saviour or destroyer of our values is finally the moot point to think over.
(The writer can be contracted at 89/7, East Punjabi Bagh, New Delhi-110 026.)
