Minister after minister said the presence of American cheerleaders does not match India’s cultural heritage.
“It should be banned immediately,” said Nandagopal Bhattacharya, CPI minister for minor irrigation.
Even Sports and Transport minister Subhas Chakraborty — now trying to get into the state CPM’s secretariat — joined the anti-cheerleading group, forgetting his own history as the man who hosted the Hope ‘86 show in 1986 by Bollywood stars and invited the wrath of party hardliners for importing “vulgar culture”.
“I am against such song and dance,” said Chakraborty. “All this is western culture. These things cannot be allowed on Kolkata’s fields.”
He said he would not allow such events even on football fields.
Kshiti Goswami, veteran RSP leader and public works minister, said cheerleaders merely distract dedicated cricket fans. “It should not be allowed on Kolkata’s fields,” said Goswami, who has been pulled up by his party and the Left Front for making open statements against the government and the CPM earlier.
Stressing that he was not into moral policing, CPI’s Bhattacharya said: “We will tell the CM to stop all this immediately since it destroys our cultural heritage”.
Kolkata will host an IPL match on April 29.
When the state’s chief secretary, Amit Kiran Deb, was asked if the government would ban the cheerleaders from performing at Eden, he said it would consider the protests. But he added: “Now I can’t see much protests. Even the newspapers are not saying much.”
Shyamal Chakraborty, central committee member of the CPM and spokesman for the party in Kolkata, however, said: “Now we are busy with panchayat elections. And we are bothered about the price rise. These are the two issues before us and nothing else. There has been no discussion about cheerleaders in the party,” he added.