At `mundans` or `mujras`, it’s OK to watch women dance: SP MLA

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: Arrested last month after a raid on a dance bar in Goan capital Panaji, the suspended Samajwadi Party MLA from Uttar Pradesh Mahendra Singh said he was not ashamed of attending the “mujra” as it was common for women to dance at various occasions from “mundans” to marriages. "Aisa dance to UP me hota rehta hai (This is common in UP). Be it `mundan`, engagement or marriage, there are women to dance at every occasion. Why should I be ashamed?", Singh said to a news agency. The UP MLA, who is now on bail, claimed that he was being made a political scapegoat and his arrest was an outcome of BJP-Congress rivalry in Goa. Mahendra Singh was arrested on August 27, when he was caught with two other Samajwadi Party workers at 1 am, enjoying women dancers’ performance sitting on mattresses, when police raided a Goa hotel. The police said that they caught the MLA from a “mujra” party and the six rescued women dancers were prostitutes called from Mumbai, Delhi and Chandigarh. But Singh has denied the allegations, saying that he was there only to attend a birthday party, reports said. The raid at the Goa hotel came after Goa CM Manohar Parrikar in his Independence Day had stressed that dance bars were prohibited in the state.