People's Democracy
(Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)
No. 33
August 19, 2012
|
Vol. XXXVI
No. 33 August 19, 2012 |
KARNATAKA
Political
Chemistry behind Moral Policing
B
Madhav
Balkrishna
Shetty
THE
inhuman attack on the Morning Mist home-stay
at Mangalore on July 29, 2012 (see People’s
Democracy, August 05, 2012 for details) is not just an
instance of moral
policing as many have claimed it to be. There is behind it a
concerted
political calculation done by the BJP’s mentors in the RSS.
The attack on the home-stay’s
occupants was, far from being an isolated incident, one in the
series of incidents
which have been and are taking place in Dakshina Kannada (DK)
district where the
BJP has a big stake in terms of assembly seats.
What
is the political chemistry behind all this?
In Dakhsina Kannada district and nearby areas, the RSS has a
well-knit organisation
and the BJP holds four out of eight assembly seats in the
district. In the
adjacent Udupi district, similarly, the BJP has four MLAs out
of a total of
five. Yet, the BJP lost its sitting Udupi-Chikmagalur
parliamentary seat in the
recently held byelection.
Apart
from the above, the corruption
scandals, the sex scandals and above all the callous neglect
of the grievances
of common people, particularly during droughts and floods,
have created a lot
of disillusionment among the people. In the meantime, one of
the sitting MLAs
in Udupi district has resigned from the BJP, along with
another former MLA. The
BJP and other Sangh Parivar outfits are naturally perplexed in
such a situation,
particularly because state assembly elections are due within
eight or nine months,
and they are out to divide the people on communal lines, in
order to withstand
the onslaught of their dwindling popularity.
It
was in this situation that they planned
and perpetrated the attack on the said home-stay in Mangalore.
Some other
similar incidents are narrated below.
1)
On April 26, 2012, a Hindu girl, working
in a furniture shop owned by a Muslim, was travelling in a car
--- to be
dropped home by her employer. On the way, however, activists
of the Hindu
Jagaran Vedike stoned the car and followed it on their
motorcycles. The shop owner,
who was driving the car, then lost control due to fear and the
car fell into a
ditch. When the girl and her employer were taken to the nearby
police station,
the girl lost courage due to the threat of the local goons and
gave the
statement that the shop owner was taking her out forcibly. The
shop owner was then
taken into custody whereas the girl was released after having
deposed against
her Muslim employer.
Next
day, when the car was taken for repair,
it was found that the car had been put afire in the night and
the valuables
kept in it were taken away.
2)
On July 16 this year, a Muslim girl was
travelling in a car, with a boy. They were friends for some
time. But the
‘moral police’ of the Sangh Parivar stopped them en route and
demanded that the
boy should marry the girl. Ultimately, they agreed to settle
the matter for Rs 3.5
lakh which the boy had then to pay to the ‘moral police’ for
not marrying the Muslim
girl. A good booty indeed for the saviours of Hindutva!
3)
On July 22, one Ershad of Ajjavara, near
Mangalore, called his girl friend, belonging to Hindu
community, to his house
as he wanted to marry the girl. But the local Sangh Parivar
activists attacked
him and the girl was “set free.” The goons claimed that they
had saved Hindutva
by forcing the Hindu girl to refrain from marrying a Muslim
boy.
4)
On July 25, at about 1.30 p m, a Muslim
youth was interviewing a Hindu girl for the post of
receptionist in his lodge. But
the cadre of the Hindu Jagaran Vedike suddenly appeared on the
scene and
attacked the Muslim youth, stating that he was using his girl
employees for
immoral activities. Both of them were taken to the Bunder
police station in
Mangalore city and a case was registered against them.
HELPING
THE
HINDUTVA
GOONS
These
are only a sample of what is taking
place daily in one or another way in various parts of
Karnataka. Now the
situation in Mangalore and nearby areas is such that a Muslim
boy hesitates to
sit beside a Hindu girl in a bus, or vice versa, even if the
seat is vacant.
In
their bid to implement their not-so-hidden
agenda, the Sangh Parivar outfits have now turned into a
sheltering umbrella
for most of the goons belonging to the Hindu community. In
fact, the Hindu
Jagaran Vedike (Forum for Hindu Awareness) is today nothing
but a congregation
of goons. On July 19, 2012, HJV activists killed an innocent
boy named Shivaraj
and threw the body on the railway track near Thokkoor. Then
this Hindutva
outfit tried to give a communal colour to the episode by
stating that Shivaraj
was killed by an underworld activist belonging to the Muslim
community. However,
the fact came to light after the police arrested Prakash and
Dinesh belonging
to the Hindu Jagaran Vedike; otherwise communal clashes might
have taken place
on this issue. For the Sangh Parivar does want a flare-up for
its own political
ends.
It
is also astonishing to note that the
photos of slained goons like Polali Ananthu, Candle Santhu and
Bajilakere Manju
were displayed in the BJP Yuva Morcha’s Jagriti Mela that was
inaugurated by
Sadananda Gowda, the then chief minister of Karnataka. They
were all notorious
anti-social elements who helped the Sangh Parivar outfits in
one or another
way. More surprisingly, their photos were displayed in the
same row where one
saw the pictures of Swami Vivekananda, Rabindranath Tagore and
Bhagat Singh!
MINORITIES
BARRED
FROM
OPENING SHOPS
Now
we have here a surprising but true
story, printed in Karavali
Ale, a
daily newspaper published from Mangalore. A car festival takes
place in
Thus
the dastardly attack on the Morning
Mist home-stay is not an isolated case. As one of the
journalists, Naveen
Soorinje who was present at the site and uplinked some of the
visuals to his TV
channels in
All
this reminds one of the call issued by a
minister in Ms Mamata Banerjee’s cabinet in
