Body politics: bahu okay, others bawdy

From the Indian Politician’s Dictionary, edited by Amar Singh, Amitabh Bachchan’s “younger brother”:
Single standards: If Mumbai bar girls are banned, so should be the Indian Premier League’s pom-pom girls.
Obscene: What the Washington Redskins wear, but not what “bahu” Aishwarya Rai wore in Dhoom:2
April 24: India’s politicians are finding it tough to keep their eye on the ball — the cricket ball. After all, “Indian culture” is being battered with pom-poms near the Twenty20 boundary line by girls in skimpy skirts.
The solution: ban the IPL cheerleaders.
The Maharashtra government today promised to consider just that — for the sake of “morality” — under pressure from lawmakers who have just forced it to keep sex education away from schools.
State BJP chief Nitin Gadkari had lobbed the ban ball at the legislative council yesterday, accusing home minister R.R. Patil of double standards.
“If Patil banned bar dancers saying it was immoral, why should half-naked cheerleaders be allowed to dance? It is against Indian culture,” Gadkari told The Telegraph.
Junior home minister Siddharam Mehetre caught the ball smartly, saying he found the cheerleaders “obscene and vulgar”.
“We live in India…. Cricket is watched by entire families, and they might find it offensive,” he told reporters outside the House.
In Delhi, Amar Singh of the Samajwadi Party couldn’t agree more.
“Nain sukh ke liye nagnata kee zaroorat nahin hai (you don’t need nudity for a visual treat). I appeal to my friend… (cricket board chief Sharad) Pawar to put an end to this obscenity. There is no need to serve female skin on a platter. Cricket will not become less popular without this nangapan (nudity).”
Whether that’s true or not, Amar had earlier confessed that in his only trip to an IPL match, he had left after watching Akshay Kumar’s stunts before the start.
Here’s what the girls have to say.
“It’s interesting — the Hyderabad crowd sit with their eyes glued to our bodies,” said Emily, one of the 12 Australian girls hired by the Deccan Chargers. “Indian crowds are more sober but more demanding than the Europeans and Americans.”
Joanne and Michele, who have acted in Baywatch, said they saw a banner at the Calcutta match that said: “Will you marry me?”
Mehetre, however, said he would find out if the foreign girls had Indian work permits. Even if there was no ban, for the remaining nine matches at Mumbai and Navi Mumbai, the girls would need permission from the police, fire brigade and the collector, he said.
Yesterday, cheerleaders of both teams in the Mumbai-Chennai game wore tight-fitting clothes that covered them from neck to toe. “Our contract said ‘no short skirts or skin-revealing things’,” a spokesman for the Chennai franchisee said.
The Hyderabad girls leave for Mumbai tomorrow for Sunday’s match. “If they want us to be fully clad, we don’t mind,” said Christy, one of the cheerleaders.
Congress leader Rajiv Shukla, BCCI vice-president and friend of Kolkata Knight Riders owner Shah Rukh Khan, opposed a ban.
He said the cheerleaders were an “important” part of IPL games. “If there’s a problem with the way they dress, that can be changed. But doing away with them will make the whole event insipid.”