Once again there has been an attack on ordinary citizens - young women in this case unwinding at a Mangalore pub - by an extremist group with no accountability, respect for the rule of law and rights of the citizen.
I repeat here from Ranjan Kamath's post on Facebook and C+ive _ Civic Society On The Web urging the Mangaloreans to "Silence the Moral Police Peacefully"
There is every likelihood that their actions are at the behest of mainstream organisations operating within the parliamentary process that can conveniently deny any association with such 'Senas' - although they are tarnished with the same hue.
Once this issue is off the front pages, the prosecution process proceeds lethargically enough to employ the lumpen to execute the next such operation with impunity - to protect 'their culture and heritage' against fellow Indians.
In the meantime, we shall develop amnesia, engage in similar knee jerk reactions to greet the next attack in Mangalore, Karnataka or, perhaps elsewhere in the country.
The extremists are confident with an arrogance that urban middle class India will bark much but never bite. There will be a profusion of electronic messages exchanged but thereafter the matter vanishes off the columns inches and public mind.
Such extremists treat our reactions with as much scorn as who we are and what we represent. Elections are around the corner and the same gentlemen shall soon be visiting our doorsteps seeking our votes with hands folded.
Yes, at the earliest opportunity Mangalore should and must organise a non-violent show of strength.
On the day the Shree Ram Sena calls a bandh demanding the release of Pramod Muthalik the people of Mangalore - particularly the young women should gather peacefully on the streets in an endless programme of song and dance from sunrise to sunset - defying the bandh with a vengeance
February 14th is another option when the young boys and girls should gather on the streets walking hand in hand in lakhs in a peaceful procession shouting no slogans but ensuring the highest standards of public decorum.
Finally, all the youngsters - especially the women eligible to vote in the forthcoming elections should demand an unconditional apology from the Shree Ram Sena and an unconditional apology from the Chief Minister of Karnataka for violating their fundamental rights and failing to provide the safety and protection of the state machinery respectively.
This is what I consider a pro active strategy; it is for the people of Mangalore to consider and execute. Perhaps, the citizens of other towns and cities might consider a similar strategy to silence the moral police?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
After my post on Talibanisation of Mangalore, I have come across through the internet more disturbing news items and blogs. One of which from SAC News I reproduce below....
Like other Mangaloreans round the world, my heart bleeds - for this is not the Mangalore many of us have been flying the flag for. This is not the Mangalore of culture, fun and love....
Instead of speaking against the hooligans who molested the girls in the pub, Yediyurappa in todays's headlines wants to discourage pub culture! Great.... Does he have daughters?
Thank you Smita Prakash for your article:
Where have all Mangaloreans gone?
29 January 2009 in SAC News
By Smita Prakash | Thursday, 29 January , 2009, 13:33
New Delhi: Where are the famous Mangaloreans who brandish their origins at the drop of a hat? Why are they not speaking up for the protection of the secular and liberal culture of this beautiful port city?
Aishwarya Rai (films), Vijay Mallya (industrialist), Suneil Shetty (films), Margaret Alva (politician), George Fernandes (politician), Veerappa Moily (politician), Oscar Fernandes (politician), Veerendra Hegde (Dharmadhikari of the Dharmasthala temple) Shilpa Shetty (actress?) Maxwell Pereira (super cop) and Arvind Adiga (Booker prize) speak up for your city.
This is not the Mangalore that I grew up in…the city where I spent my summers at the homes of aunts and grandparents, visited restaurants and temples, wearing whatever I pleased. Nobody stopped me. Not even the Shankaracharya of the Sri Sharada Peetham, Sringeri.The Peetham is the first and foremost of the four Peethams established by the renowned 8th century philosopher saint Sri Adi Shankara. This was in 1980, and women were safe in Mangalore. At the Sringeri Math, women only wore saris when they sought the darshan of the Shankaracharya. Rebellious me decided to wear a salwar kameez. I didn’t think I was insulting anybody after all, the men were topless! The Swamiji looked at me and asked me very politely in Kannada if I was a north Indian. I replied in chaste Kannada that I was a Kannadiga, but lived in the north. He nodded, smiled and said, “that explains your choice of attire..”
I am so glad that in my teen years I only met with the erudite 35th Shankaracharya who embodied what the culture of coastal Karnataka is all about….inclusive, tolerant and respectful of all cultures.
Thankfully Pramod Muthalik hadn’t yet formed his Sri Ram Sene. This Marathi-speaking non-Mangalorean, non-Kannadiga from Belgaum was still not sure where his political fortunes lay. He was still trying out his luck with the Shiv Sena, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the Bajrang Dal, RSS, Rashtriya Hindustan Sena or this new and blasphemous Ram Sene. And during this time, he was also reportedly Nathuram Godse’’s fan! What an endearing personality!
A part of Mangalore is called Kudla in Tulu (a language spoken in many parts of coastal Karnataka), which literally means junction. The city is situated at the meeting point of rivers Netravati and Phalguni. But figuratively, it is also the junction of various religions and cultures like Hinduism, Jainism, Islam and Christianity.
Mangalore finds mention in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. It was also in the travel itinerary of Greek, Persian and Portuguese sailors even before the 14th century. Chalukyas, Rashtrakutas and Hoysalas ruled it. And then, there was Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan. Mangaloreans are proud of their inclusive and open culture.
The city has a male literacy rate of 90 per cent and a female literacy rate of 80 per cent. Do Muthalik and his goondas seriously believe that the educated women of this city need his ”protection”? No thank you. Keep your lathis inside your shakhas. Keep your narrow mindsets inside your darkened walls
02 Feb 2009
In India it is common for those in authority or governance to think they are above the law!
The most recent violation is by India's Union Health Minister's statement discriminating on grounds of sex women visiting pubs for even a tiny tippler... Earlier, it was BJP ruled Karnataka Chief Minister Yediyurappa's fork-tongued declaration that his government's focus would be to keep women away from "pubs" - ostensibly in the interest of preserving Hindu culture!
And now UPA Health Minister Mr. Ambumani Ramdoss's statement against "Pubs" which is against the Constitution of India - especially Article 15; which says: " Prohobition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth - (1) The state shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them.
And (2) No citizen shall, on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them, be subjected to any disability, liability, restriction or condition with regards to -
(a) acess to shops, public restaurants, hotels and places of public emtertainment:..............."
Not only is it evident that the statement of Mr. Ramadoss is violative of the article of the Constitution, it is also against the spirit of the orders of the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India which allowed women to work as Bar tenders in the case filed by the Hotel Association of India. The Hon'ble SC had observed in that case, "Legislation should not only be assessed on its proposed aims but also on the implications and the effects. The impugned legislation suffers from incurable fixations of stereotype morality and conception of sexual role. The perspective thus arrived at is outmoded in content and stifling in means."
"Instead of prohibiting women's employment in the bars altogether, the State should focus on factoring in ways through which unequal consequences of sex differences can be eliminated. It is [the] State's duty to ensure circumstances of safety which inspire confidence in women to discharge the duty freely in accordance with the requirements of the profession they choose to follow," the Bench had said.
Ranjan Kamath to members of Cellular Silence Day_ 30th January 2009, for Mangalore to be India's Nashville with its Non-Violent Plan of Action:
For an Inter-Jesuit schools essay competition way back in 1978, the topic was Martin Luther King's quote "The ultimate tragedy is not the brutality of the bad but the silence of the good". Every time India goes through a civic convulsion - major or minor- that quote returns to haunt me. Now, it does not stop haunting me!
A significant section of the great Indian middle class 'seems' to be apathetic and indifferent,cocooned in their glass houses of prosperity, remaining silent in frustration, unprepared for someone throwing the first stone.
Meanwhile, there is a simmering anger amongst the youth frustrated by the poverty of leadership and direction by the generation that ought to be showing them the way forward. They are angry, insecure and afraid - a lethal combination that requires to be harnessed and provided direction.
Mangalore has been the beacon of secularism for centuries. Communities have co-habited and co-existed with each other in mutual respect, doing business together, participating in each others' festivities till very recently, when communal rifts were engineered. The same elements have now upped the ante, engineering the segregation of cultures.
Mangalore is their laboratory where they are 'beta testing' their madness before proliferating their programme of cultural sanitization and segregation elsewhere the country.Soon, we shall all be required to prove our 'Indianness' by wearing saffron swastikas!
If we reduce our social action to exchanging email and Youtube clips about the Mangalore pub attacks, raving and ranting on social networking sites and doing precious little, then we shall become silent participants in a repeat of the occurrences in Germany in the 1930's. History ought to help us learn from the previous follies of mankind not allow them to be replicated in meticulous detail in the presence of our silence.
These extremist forces emulate the tried and tested structure of numerous organisations that have previously propounded change through violence. There is a political organisation well established within the mainstream providing sanction to sleeper cells ready to execute acts of violence.
If the situation goes out of control there is an immediate public statement of dis-association and denial. The modus operandi followed in Mangalore leaves the 'mother ship' without blemish but the illegitimate intimacy of these political bedfellows continues unabated under saffron sheets.
So, it seems rather pointless targetting the Shree Ram Sena and seeking its ban as that would proliferate two more Senas - as has happened ad infinitum. It is time to keep 'mother ship' in our cross hairs especially with elections around the next corner.
The institutionalised segregration of Black and White in the town of Nashville gave birth to the Civil RIghts Movement under the leadership of Martin Luther King. it began with a group of black students from Fisk University in Nashville peacefully defying segregation. They were introduced to and inspired by the non-violent strategies of our very own Mahatma Gandhi.
It is now time for the youth of India to defy the cultural segration imposed by a few on the many. Mangalore is India's Nashville and the time is ripe for a similar satyagraha.
The youth of Bangalore and elsewhere should join hands in solidarity with the youth of Mangalore in a show of solidarity at the earliest opportune date. The demands should include the trial and prosecution of Pramod Muthalik and his lumpen outside the state of Karnataka withn 30 days, owing to a lack of confidence in the government of Karnataka. Also required is an apology from the Chief Minister of Karnataka for not providing citizens the safety and security of state machinery.
If no action is taken within the stipulated time, then we step up civil action; set aside our political differences and rally behind independent candidates against the ruling party of the state and defeat them in the constituencies where we can manage to do so.
If Mangalore leads the way, Bangalore and Mumbai will follow.
Why call upon only Mangaloreans to protest. They may lead but others should also follow. Today it is Mangalore--tomorrow it may be Goa or any other place.
What is the media doing? After reporting the long delayed arrest of the 'alleged' miscreants, can they not give a regular review (weekly/forthnightly) of the progress of the case. This will show up the influence of the political masters on the investigating authorities.
J. D'Cruz currently from Dallas, Texas
From: subrat mohanty
Date: 2009/2/10
Subject: Sir: Are you the policeman of not so distant past?
To: Maxwell Pereira
Sir:
Many years ago you were in Delhi as the DG. Prior to that Have heard your name in Bangalore and believe you to be from Mangalore.
I had learnt from the news papers and articles of your family and your childrens education
abroad etc.
But this liking for the Gregorian Chants. I suppose they were always in old greek and latin,
songs of faith by holy men in chapels. I'll try to read your blogs in future to understand.
I am one of those Indians/hindus who has been educated by the missionaries all through
education. No one ever asked me to change faith. No Indian or no English either. Only Americans think money can buy and sell anything. Undoubtely the best education that
money could not buy then, even if not enough money to buy/spend now.
Now I've decided to look up old friends, lost times, and revive pastimes. I tried to look up this friend in Germany, in Dusseldorf, Golak Mishra, that is where I got your address.
Thank you, Sir,
Kindly acknowledge receipt of this mail
---------------------------
From: Maxwell Pereira
To: Subrata Mohanty
Subject: Yes, I am he...
Mr Mohanty...
Thank you for your email....
I like the human and secular tone of your note - something forgotten today by a majority of India and Indians - all who were touched by the unstinted Christian largesse in some form or the other, mostly through selfless sevices in fields educational or medical....
Yes, I am he - the same lowly ex-policeman of Delhi you have described (...never hit the heights of DG tho') - a Mangalorean educated in Bangalore.... ashamed today what Mangalore has become with its attacks on churches and assaults on girls visiting pubs!
If I am not mistaken, I mentioned 'Gregorian' only on my homepage on Facebook - how in hell did you access my Facebook? I do find Gregorian chants most soothing for mind body and soul...
What is your connection to Bangalore? Are you now based in Germany? Do convey my warm regards to friend Golak Mishra....
Regards,
Maxwell
--
Maxwell Pereira IPS (Retd.)
3725 Sector-23, Gurgaon-122017, India
(foot loose and fancy free - currently galivanting in US of A)
Post a Comment