BOMBAY, 2 April 2005 — An indefinite strike by bar owners in Maharashtra was withdrawn yesterday after alleged activists of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) went on the rampage and ransacked two dance bars in Dadar (East) and Sion.
“We will finish the dance bar culture once and for all. Our youths are getting ruined by this deadly disease, which has made hundreds of families bankrupt” said Anil Shinde, an NCP activist.
Bar association President Manjit Singh Sethi charged that the staff and owners of the two bars were beaten up and property was damaged by goons from the Dharavi slums allegedly supported by the NCP and police. Sethi also attacked Home Minister R.R. Patil, stating that the bar owners were being browbeaten to cough up money and that the police were demanding heavy bribes.
Taking offense at the remarks, a mob of more than 500 alleged NCP activists attacked the dance bars and beat up the staff.
Most of the dance bars in Bombay are owned by Sikhs. “Maharashtra is not Punjab and the people of Maharashtra will not tolerate the strong arm tactics or insult to their party leaders by outsiders,” said Vishwas Kulkarni, an NCP activist from Bandra.
Shocked by the attack on the bars and fearing more damage to their properties if the strike continued, the bar association immediately called off its protest against the government’s recent ban on dance bars in the state except in Bombay.
