Political goons shock India

By M H Ahssan

In a shocking incident that has provoked national outrage, hooligans from the fundamentalist Hindu group Sri Ram Sene on January 24 barged into a bar in India's coastal city of Mangalore and brutally beat up a group of young girls for "violating traditional Indian norms".

The girls were punched, their hair was pulled and clothes torn. Their male friends were also assaulted. The girls' crime? Eating and drinking in a bar.

Even as this incident was unfolding, in nearby Mumbai another radical group, the Shiv Sena, was attacking a plush suburban hotel, damaging property and creating mayhem. Why? The hotel's management had sacked employees belonging to a certain section of society.

Another fringe group calling itself the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) wreaked havoc on the Mumbai University campus on January 26, vandalizing property because the school "dared" to offer Hindi language classes as an alternative to Mumbai's local dialect of Marathi. The MNS hooligans also renewed their campaign against north Indians in Nashik town, attacking people at a public function where north Indians were celebrating Republic Day.

These four shameful incidents, which transpired in quick succession this month, have distinct political underpinnings. They underscore how under the garb of "morality", misguided political groups in India are vandalizing property and terrorizing people for their behavior, lifestyle or even apparel.

Unfortunately, such savagery by self-styled upholders of Indian "morals" has become a frequent occurrence in these politically charged times.

Political observers have blamed diverse reasons for this thuggery masquerading as "political activism". According to one theory, it suits Indian political parties to have these groups at their disposal. When damage occurs, and the media heat gets too much to handle, the political party will then distance itself.

The groups claim they were acting to further the party's "ideology", and trying to carve a national identity for themselves. The groups are helped by poor law enforcement in Indian states, which often means the they can escape prosecution.

"There's no dearth of laws to put such non-state actors behind bars," said criminal lawyer Ved Bharatiya, "but the police always end up capitulating to political pressure". Bharatiya adds that there has been very few cases of punishment for crimes committed by members of these fringe outfits.

The last time the court held a political party accountable for vandalism was when it heavily fined the Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2004 after the two were found guilty of damaging public property during a Mumbai bandh (political strike).

These fringe groups see themselves as "protectors" of Indian culture, to which girls drinking in pubs is an anathema. This is symptomatic of a rising new wave of religious and political intolerance in the country.

The BJP government in Karnataka did not even react to the pub attack until the media pushed the matter and the party's central leadership finally expressed regret.

"Their method was wrong," said a defiant Pramod Muthalik, the founder of the Sri Ram Sene, about his followers' actions. "It should not have happened. But it was done to save our daughters and mothers from an alien culture," he said.

Earlier, in interviews to regional and national channels, Muthalik denied that the attack was carried out by his organization. "They are not our workers. There is a conspiracy against the BJP government in Karnataka. The UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government at the center [Delhi] and the Congress are behind the conspiracy to tarnish the image of the state government," Muthalik said.

Similarly, in Maharashtra, the Congress government has failed to come down hard on the group responsible for the hotel damage. State governments seem unwilling or unable to manage this random violence. Mangalore has recently suffered a strong wave of anti-Christian violence, so people may have expected the local administration to be alert to such a recurrence. If so, they were disappointed.

Insiders say that administrative apathy and inefficacy have let fringe groups like the MNS and the Shiv Sena become a law unto themselves, with state governments often conveniently looking the other way. The fear among the public is that as this May's general elections draw near, such incidents will spiral upward.

Public outrage has grown after the pub attack, with human rights groups calling it was a violation of basic freedoms. "Indian culture gives equal status to men and women. So why are women expected to stay in purdah (a veil), while the men do as they please," said Sunidhi Shah, a Delhi-based activist. "Serious action must be taken against these mad men. If not we'll return to the medieval times when women had no rights at all."

According to the state police chief, the Mangalore attackers will be booked on charges of criminal trespass, assaulting women, rioting on private premises and criminal conspiracy. The police said that they are exploring the possibility of invoking a stringent local mandate against Goonda (thugs) to prosecute the identified attackers.

The Goonda Act was established to curb rowdy elements involved in activities like extortion. But sceptics fear this is only symbolic and the vandals will soon be released - if they are jailed at all - to offend again.

Woman and Child Development Minister Renuka Chowdhury has termed the Mangalore assault an attempt to "Talibanize" India. "I am absolutely horrified at this insensitivity. There is no place for these kinds of acts in India as it is a democracy," Chowdhury said.