Berhampur, June 10: Police stopped allegedly obscene dance depicting Bharat Lila characters including Sita and Rama at a fishermen locality at Gopalpur on Thursday after an Election Commission official, who was on a private tour, brought the matter to the notice of the district administration.

The “obscene” dance began after demon king Ravana kidnapped Sita during the performance. Sita was scantily clad. Lord Ram and his army were wearing shorts. And four scantily clad young girls danced to the tune of modern music as part of the play Bharat Lila amidst loud cheers and whistles by the spectators.

Bharat Lila was being performed after the 17-day yatra of Maa Totalamma and Maa Mutyalamma that concluded on June 7, he said.

Following the complaint, police reached the spot and asked the organisers to sop the dance.“It was just too vulgar, in very bad taste and an affront to womanhood. What was further shocking was the poor taste of the majority of the audience present there,” said Debendra Behera, a resident of Gopalpur. We cannot allow any vulgar dance depicting puranic characters such as Goddess Sita and Lord Rama,” he added.

“I know there will be people who will counter me saying that this is the new culture and India is much more modern now,” he said. Bhagirathi Gouda, president of the Gopalpur Nagarika Mancha, has urged people to oppose such vulgar dances.

Director general of the Election Commission of India Prasanna Kumar Das, who arrived at Gopalpur-on-sea on a personal visit, was shocked to see the dance performance. “I saw a cabaret dance at Gopalpur out in the open. It is obnoxious. I immediately brought it to the notice of the Ganjam collector who later informed me that the show had been stopped. But allowing the organisers to conduct such vulgar dance programmes and stopping it by force later is not at all the solution. We must stop it before it begins,” said Das.

Inspector in-charge of Gopalpur Police Station Satyabadi Padhi said that this Bharat Lila was being organised at Bada Sahi. “We raided the spot after police was informed about the vulgar dance programme there. When we reached the spot the artists fled from the stage. We stopped the show after the organisers insisted that the programme continued. When we asked the organisers to come with us to police station, they agreed to stop the vulgar dance. Sita, Rama Chandra and the monkeys went on stage in their traditional attire and the Bharat Lila continued till 3pm,” the IIC said.