Dear Reader,

Not every political controversy begins with a speech, a policy decision, or a parliamentary uproar. Some begin on a dance floor.

Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) spokesperson Vijeta Dahiya may be discovering this after a video surfaced on social media showing him moving to a rap performance of “Azadi” from the 2019 film Gully Boy. Because “Azadi” became one of the defining slogans of student and anti-CAA protests, the clip was quickly read as a political statement rather than a few seconds of dancing.

Dahiya, who wears several hats as political researcher, author, and filmmaker, might have escaped notice had he not recently become one of the more recognisable faces of the CJP. The party is still more social movement than registered party, untested by the rough and tumble of electoral politics.

In September 2023, a video of Telangana Minister Malla Reddy dancing on World Heart Day to the track “DJ Tillu” went viral. His detractors poked fun; his supporters were equally vocal. Reddy is known for dancing on multiple occasions to energetic tracks, and he has attended public Zumba sessions at community health events.

The row over Mamata Banerjee at the 29th Kolkata International Film Festival in December 2023 was of a different order. The Chief Minister stood alongside actors Salman Khan, Shatrughan Sinha (now a Trinamool Congress MP), Sonakshi Sinha, and Anil Kapoor, clapping and briefly moving to the music. Union Minister Giriraj Singh, then heading the Rural Development portfolio, came down heavily on her, saying she was celebrating with thumka (a hip-swaying dance move) even as her State was battling debt. Banerjee’s party called Singh a misogynist and went into campaign mode; Singh sought to play down his remarks. Trinamool hit back, accusing him of going back on his controversial remarks.

In June 2011, Sushma Swaraj—then Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha—joined BJP workers at Rajghat during a day-long protest against the government’s crackdown on Yoga guru Ramdev. Around 2 am, she danced to the patriotic song “Ye Desh Hai Veer Jawano Ka” at the Samata Sthal adjacent to the Gandhi samadhi. Senior Congress leaders demanded her resignation, calling it national sacrilege. Swaraj hit back, saying the Congress simply did not like desh bhakts (patriots) dancing to patriotic songs. The controversy ran for days, with prime-time television debates over whether the dance was in poor taste or whether the criticism was sexist.

In 2015, then Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani and Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal joined a phugdi circle at the launch of the new Bathinda Central University campus in Punjab. Phugdi is an energetic women’s folk dance tradition also practised across the border in Pakistan. Their participation passed without comment, but controversy attended BJP MLA Manda Mhatre’s Lavani performance at the Navi Mumbai Cultural, Arts and Sports Festival in 2020.

In some cases, the presence of female performers on stage alongside male politicians has invited sharper criticism. Television media reported two such incidents in 2017: BJP MLA Kunwar Pranav Singh Champion dancing with a female performer at a function in Roorkee honouring Union Minister Krishna Pal, and JDU MLA Shyam Bahadur doing the same at a wedding. Both attracted considerable bad press. A similar row erupted in December 2020 over a 40-second clip showing Chhattisgarh Minister Gulab Kamro dancing with a singer and two female performers—none of them masked, in violation of COVID-19 protocols then in force.

Is there a difference between these controversies, or is there also a gender dimension at work when terms such as Nachaniya (a dismissive term for a folk dancer) and Nachiya Party (a mocking label meaning “dance troupe”) get applied to politicians who dance?

Some of these episodes were simply expressions of joy. I remember in 2020 Odisha Congress MLA Suresh Kumar Routray making his debut in a rap music video titled “Rangabati”—unrelated to the famous Sambalpuri folk song—which he recorded at a studio in Cuttack. His dancing made news. He followed it up with a song about father-son relationships, “Suna Ra Bapa”, and was seen dancing with supporters and actors at cultural events. His jovial, unguarded style was, for once, entirely controversy-free.

In October 2017, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi joined tribal artists performing the folk dance timli during the party’s Navsarjan Yatra in Chhota Udaipur, Gujarat. The Congress’s official social media handle shared the clip.

Elsewhere in the world, shaking a leg has long been accepted as a natural expression of a politician’s humanity. Hillary Clinton did the “Nae Nae” on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in New York. Barack and Michelle Obama danced at the 2013 Inaugural Ball. Boris Yeltsin famously danced with a singer in Rostov in 1996. Michelle Obama tapped the floor during a fitness visit to a school in Washington; George W. Bush danced in New Orleans after a community event. None of these became scandals.

Is the fuss over dancing in India a gendered double measure about what public conduct is allowed? Can our democracy accommodate a little dancing? Or are we, as a society, still suspicious of politicians who appear too human?

Write back as always,

Anand Mishra

Political Editor,Frontline