Cheerleaders in, but skimpy clothes are out

MUMBAI: Cheerleaders will continue to cheer cricket fans and others, but ���under cover���. The dancing girls won���t be banished during the IPL matches in Mumbai, but they have to give up their skimpy outfits and wear decent ones, with the government making it clear that action will be taken against the organisers if their shows are found to be vulgar.

Importantly, the government has left the issue to the local police. This means if the police on duty find cheerleaders ���obscene���, the organisers will face the music.

In Navi Mumbai, where the match is being played on Sunday, the police chief sought to clear the air on the issue. ���The girls are merely artists who perform as per the instructions of organisers,��� Navi Mumbai police commissioner Ramrao Wagh said, adding that a performance licence has been granted to the organisers of the match between Mumbai Indians and Deccan Chargers to be held at Nerul���s DY Patil Stadium.

Now, if they find any hint of obscenity, Wagh said, the ���licence holders��� (the organisers) will be prosecuted under various provisions of the Bombay Police Act for indecency at a public place and breach of licence terms. He also made it clear that the show should not be vulgar or obscene and offend the dignity of women. He was quick to add that there have been no instructions from the government in this regard.

Even as the Maharashtra government was grappling with the issue, politicians from West Bengal joined the chorus on Friday in targeting the dancing beauties. West Bengal sports minister Subash Chakravarty said the cheerleaders had no role and were out of place during sporting encounters and there was no need to import Western culture.

Mr Chakravarty, who was supported by the state PWD minister Kshiti Goswami (RSP) and water minister Nandgopal Bhttacharya (CPI), said he would take up the issue with chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya shortly. On the other side of the political spectrum, the BJP continued to lash out at the IPL. After the state BJP leaders, it was the turn of former chief Venkaiah Naidu who dubbed cheerleaders��� dance as ���distraction and nonsense���.

���We have been given clear directives by Navi Mumbai's police commissioner RR Wagh that we will have to ensure that the cheerleaders are wearing very and clothes. They should not be wearing skimpy attire,��� Kaushik Roy of Mumbai Indians' franchise team owners Indiawin Sports, a subsidiary of RIL, said. ���We have also been told that any malfunction of the attire would be dealt with severely,��� Roy said.