Moral Policing - Rectifying or Destroying Culture?

  •   Fri, Oct 30 2015
  •   By Niva Shetty

October 30, 2015


Apart from the 2009 pub attack and 2012 home stay attack which caught the eye of the media, there are several other cases which have not been heard of in the coastal belt of Karnataka. According to the data collected by the Karnataka Communal Harmony Forum there were 45 moral policing incidents in 2013, 39 incidents in 2014 and 10 incidents in 2015 so far.

In the recent incident a Muslim youth was thrashed for being with his colleague who was from the other community. Another incident was the attack on a party in a reputed hotel in Mangaluru on September 26 where the so called 'activists' with the police raided the place and asked the women to vacate and the men to continue partying. The move of the cops was appreciated by the Bajarang Dal's Mangaluru head.

There are no set of hard bound rules on Indian culture. It is not part of the culture to keep women caged inside the house without any contact with the outside world. The same culture worships goddesses yet they fail to respect women.

Freedom according to the Constitution is the same for both men and women. The police is supposed to protect the rights of citizens, not help these goons. A vigilante group cannot take matters into their own hands if the police isn't ready to co-operate.

The cases of moral policing have increased which puts Mangaluru to shame. Women are scared to even go out with their brothers with a thought that they would get beaten up like the rest.

How can Mangaluru be in the list of 'Smart Cities' when such activities take place? Widening roads, building malls and flats do not make Mangaluru a Smart City. When the citizens of Mangaluru are open to change, broad-minded and are willing to work with one another specially from a different religion, there will be peace and harmony. Only then can we say we are on the process of being a Smart City.

 

 
By Niva Shetty
Niva Shetty is from Mangaluru. She is pursuing her 1st year MA in Mass Communication and Journalism in Nitte Institute of Communication.
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Comment on this article

  • B Prakash Kamath, Mannagudda,

    Sat, Oct 31 2015

    Contradictions in the same article. writer must have forgotten what she wrote in the beginning. Giving statistics she says 45 incidents in 2013, 39 in 2014 and now we are in 11th month and so far there are 10 incidents. At end she says case of moral policing increasing. So what to believe. statistics given in the first para or the last but one. for a future journalist it is better have clarity of thought.

  • Vasanth Rai, Mangalore / canada

    Sat, Oct 31 2015

    Excellent article and comment.

  • Zeitgeist, Mangalore

    Sat, Oct 31 2015

    Niva,

    The main issue over here is that there is a passive support for moral policing. Just think how many of parents have say whome their children have to marry. If children want to marry whomever they may like, dont the parents have objection on that? This is the thing that has taken to extreme in mangalore. We cant give any advice to moral policing goons on constitutional rights... cause they cannot understand that. But the main thing you have to ask is that what police are doing about it?? I blame this whole moral policing things on police. eg: A year ago, actually i dont know where in mangalore exactly ... a college study tour was cancelled because student from different community were travelling in a same bus. The moral policing goons gathered threw stones at bus. Police arrived and dispersed the crowd. then what did police do??? they advised the college to cancel the study tour. who won?? the moral police. who lost ... our dumb police. Police are suppose to upheld the rights of the people and protect them when their rights are infringed upon.. but what they actually do... they bend backwards for these moral policing goons.

  • Ashok Kotian, Mangalore / Mumbai

    Sat, Oct 31 2015

    Moral policing continues due to laziness of our police force.

  • George L.D`mello, Sharjah,UAE

    Fri, Oct 30 2015

    PUT THEM BEHIND THE BARS

  • Diego Britto, Mangaluru

    Fri, Oct 30 2015

    Well said Niva. It is through people like you who want to see Mangaluru prosper, that change will take place.


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