Prof Narendra Nayak
Mangalore, Jul 30: The 'Talibanis' of Mangalore have struck again - this time at a birthday party held in private premises. There are a number of motivations for this - the main one is that nothing happens to them ultimately. This is because of the cowardice of the victims. But, this time I have come to know that the men who were beaten up have stood firm and complained which is good.
The impunity with which these attacks are carried out shows hands behind them and the protective shields which have deep roots. It is to be noted that one such element has taken charge as the district in-charge minister a few days before this happened emboldening the perpetrators that they can get away with anything. The ‘performance’ for the audiovisual media would befit any rape scene of a Bollywood potboiler and the nonchalance of the mob was an indication that they are not bothered about the consequences. Well, when they were ultimately arrested there were protests by women- not about the incident but about the due process of law.
Well, if a birthday party was going on and whatever else was happening was something in private premises between consenting individuals and third parties have no business there at all. This is not an Islamic country where Mullahs can dictate morals to people but a democracy where individuals have rights guaranteed by the constitution of this country. The tragedy is that there is a section of the society which is supporting this dastardly violation of rights of the individuals concerned in the name of ‘morality’. The very same individuals who talk about so called ‘morality’ have absolutely no problems with the corruption in the society, social evils, caste system or many such things in the very same society. In fact I have seen these we are all Hindus, we are all one slogan shouting gang heads vehemently opposing inter caste marriages among Hindus.
It is time that we Mangaloreans wake up and realize that it is high time that we put these gangs in the place where they belong either behind the bars or the Arabian sea. Again, these gangs also act against those who condemn such incidents and try to portray us as supporters of undesirable activities- if some one chooses to have a drink or dance it is their personal business but attacking, molesting them and trying to rape them is a congisable, non bailable offence and should be punished with the maximum punishment and the trial conducted expedititiously with a able special prosecutor so that anyone doing such things in the future would think twice sorry ten times before trying such activity.
It is a shame that our city Mangalore is getting into the news again for the wrong reasons- this time because of some goons who think that they can do anything and get away with it - thanks to political support. Again, the action of the police commissioner in naming one of the TV channels as a co-accused is a typical case of shooting the messenger if one does not like the message. It is also strange that when a TV channel could be there in time to shoot the incident, the police took their own sweet time to come to the spot. It is foolish indeed to blame someone else for a massive intelligence failure of the police. Or is it due to some other reason?
It is time that we wake up and have a citizens police to police the moral police! If such incidents are allowed to happen again and again we may have a time when we will have to take the permission of a local goon belonging to a communal outfit before we speak to another individual belonging to another religion, community, region or gender.