India to scrap hotel discos

Many of the discos will be closed down

Discotheques in five star hotels owned by the Indian Government are to be shut down.

The Minister of State for Culture and Tourism, Bhavnaben Chikaliya made the announcement in the Indian parliament on Tuesday.

Ms Chikaliya, a recently appointed junior minister, said the closure plans had already begun.

She said the government-owned five-star hotels should promote Indian culture and values and guests should be introduced to Indian culture as soon as they entered them.

Distortion

Ms Chikaliya hopes to promote Indian culture

Voicing her concern over what she described as the cultural invasion by the West, the minister said that Indian civilisation was among the oldest in the world.

She said attempts were made to distort Indian culture and civilisation when the country was under the rule of the Mughals and the British.

She said the government was now making efforts to remove these distortions.

Ms Chikaliya also argued that even private hotels running discotheques should stop promoting Western concepts and they would be persuaded to do so.

Protests

The minister also expressed her reservations about celebrating St Valentine's Day in India, saying that it was another example of the promotion of Western culture.

In a separate campaign, religious activists in India began protesting against Valentine's Day celebrations, saying they are an insult to Hinduism.

In Bombay, members of the right-wing Shiv Sena group raided shops and burned Valentine's Day cards.

Similar protests have been seen in Pakistan where activists have said Valentine's Day is an offence to Islam.

Ms Chikaliya was taken into the cabinet in the recent reshuffle and represents Gujarat in the Indian parliament.