Hotel and restaurant owners and dance party and fashion show organisers are in a dilemma after police put a ban on fashion shows and dance parties in Dharan last month, a city famous for being fashionable since the 70s.

For quite sometime now, the police have been detaining youngsters with long hair and those who have had their motorbikes modified, all in the name of controlling societal blot. There were even wide spread rumours in March and April that the Police were planning to ban women from wearing pants, which Information Minister Tanka Dhakal had to actually publicly deny. In a similar whim, this year the police did not allow dance parties and fashion shows that used to take place every year during the Nepali New Years in Dharan.

Ishwar Shrestha, Suman Tamang and Ajit Rai, owners of Hard Rock Food Corner and Cyber Café, had taken permission from the Ward Police Station, Dharan, to organise a dance party in their venue. Yet, on 13 April, the Dharan police arrested the three organisers. “Police interfered in a program for which they had granted us permission after we submitted a written application to host and organise such an event,” says Ishwar. “There were no fights or vulgarity of any kind in the dance party. We were arrested only because we had organised a party.” Ishwar also told WAVE that they suffered financial loss and mental stress because of the incident. They were released two hours later with the help of the Hotel Association, Dharan. The organisers said that they had put extra effort and caution so that there would be no fights or displays of vulgarity at the event. For safety reasons, they claimed to have banned all bottled drinks at the venue, permitting sale of only canned drinks. But the police office informed WAVE that they had to arrest the organisers because the organisers had organised a dance party claiming it was a cultural program.

Dharan’s Area Police Station Inspecter Krishna Prasad Sharma told us that a ban has been imposed on programs that propagate western culture but anyone can organise pure Nepali programs. He says, “Fashion shows shouldn’t be about vulgarity and showing skin but should reflect our cultural values.”

Local Administration Office’s Chief Dambaru Prasad Niraula also confirmed that a ban has been imposed by the administration on all fashion shows and dance parties that do not display Nepali culture. He says, “This is to stop fights, social defilement and vulgarity.”

“It depends on the viewpoint of a person. Organising such an event in not bad in itself,” says Nischal Palilkhe, Cinderella’s Bakery Café’s owner and Hotel Association of Dharan’s General Secretary, who also organised McBorg Gilmore Feista on 11 April. “In Kathmandu these kinds of events takes place almost everyday, we see no reason why it should not happen here. In the present situation when the hotel business is almost dead, these kind of events help keep the industry afloat .”

Dharan Municipality’s Officer Dundi Raj Ghimire thinks that fashion shows and dance parties are normal in a city. He says, “Permission to organise such events should be granted if organised without intentions of defiling societal values. If these kinds of events do not take place in the cities, business will be hampered. The budding fashion and modelling industry will also be destroyed.” He thinks it’s obvious to arrest people if people are using “dance parties” as a cover for prostitution but it is not right for the police to interfere in Cyber Cafes and arrest young people just because they have long hair.

Work culture has not yet caught up with urban youth in Nepal but the last few years have seen a sudden burst of enthusiasm to organise events mostly revolving around music, fashion and dance.

While the Police Administration has banned such events from taking place in Dharan, Red Apple Entertainment House organised a dance party on the occasion of New Year’s Eve in Ratna Hotel, Biratnagar, a neighbouring city about a 45 minute drive away.

source: http://www.wavemag.com.np/2005/may/purbanchal.html