Stop Mangalore's dastardly Moral Policing

To
Secretary General - National Human Rights Commission
The Secretary - Ministry of Women's Affairs
The Secretary - Ministry of Home Affairs

Mangalore, an idyllic place on the South West ridge of India is a developing city with a hotbed culture of varied backgrounds and till of recent years was one of the fast developing cities as an educational hub. Yes, Mangalore itself with its hard working & sincere people has given rise to people spread throughout the world, people who’ve climbed up corporate ladders, government positions, celebrity charts, etc. But this is neither a geography nor a history lesson.

Always considered a warm place for students and people at large, unfortunately in the recent years, this has to proved to be the opposite side of a cracked coin that most would not see.

Let’s go by recent activities of so-called activists –

14th September, 2008 - Bajrang Dal activists simultaneously attacked 20 churches and prayer halls in the infamous ‘Church Attacks’, causing ripples through the society where many people were attacked.

24th January, 2009 – Around 40 Sri Ram Sena activists barged into a pub and beat up the young women and men there, hospitalizing at least 2 girls

13th August , 2011 – Bajrang Dal activists raided a celebration party Maharani Farm Guest House located near Ullal beach, Mangalore. As only boys were there, they were all beaten up and some of their belongings were stolen. http://www.daijiworld.com/news/news_disp.asp?n_id=112050&n_tit=Bajrang+Dal+Activists+Raid+Rave+Party%2C+Find+Youngsters+with+Drugs

18th May 2012 - Hindu Jagarana Vedike along with the police, attacked a rented house in Thare Thota of Nanthur and beat up the boys and girls there on the pretext that they were having a rave party
http://www.daijiworld.com/news/news_disp.asp?n_id=138401

25th May 2012 - An activist with the Hindu Jagarana Vedike, assaulted a family of farmers which opposed land acquisition for the Mangalore Special Economic Zone Report project. Four of them, including two children, had to be hospitalised.

28th July, 2012 - Hindu Jagarana Vedike activists raided a home stay at Padil, Mangalore and beat up the boys and girls who had gathered to celebrate their friends birthdays.

Yes – after the last attack, 22 attackers were arrested and the main accused is to be booked Goonda Act. And who is that gentleman? Subhas Padil (36) of Veeranagar, a very notorious rowdy who’s an enforcer for builders and land sharks and is completely aware that nobody can touch him for long, with his political clout. For your information he already has 9 cases that have been registered against him. And even after the 2009 pub attack, he was arrested but was released on bail in a matter of 3 months.

So our question is – would this be how serious our government is when it comes to the public safety? Is it ok for them to coolly sit back and not bother about the fact, that our children and youth are beaten up black and blue for very vague reasons and are then expected after that to just get on with their lives? Would anybody try and understand the trauma, mental harassment and humiliation that these kids suffer through no fault of theirs?

And that is why, cases will be booked, people will be arrested and then set free in a matter of days – just to show that there is a machinery in place to take care of all this. But then, this process just adds to the criminals’ ego that they’ve done something and the public will be scared of them. And the cycle repeats itself, just a little more viciously each time.

But NO! Its time to show that we, as the general public and the youth of India, will not take all this lying down!

Yes, we sympathize with happenings all over the world! We pray for the innocent people in Syria who are killed and the people in Assam who were ravaged. We protested against the poor girl who was molested in Guwahati and we felt the pain of the girl who was thrown out of a moving train in Mandya. And with all this, we cannot ignore the atrocities that spoil our own homeland – Mangalore!

We want our peaceful Mangalore with its varied culture and people of different communities living in harmony, back again and we are going to stand up for this!

What we want and demand for, as responsible citizens of India, are the following –
1. Arrest and imprisonment is not enough for those molesters who didn’t think twice about what they did. Maximum punishment must be given to all of them. If the step parents in Delhi, of a now 13 year old boy, who was tortured by them, were awarded 10 years rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 60,000 each (which is still quite less), then the same, if not more must be given to these molesters. Actually castration would be better, but on humanity grounds, we must be just!
2. Communal outfits like the Bajrang Dal, Sri Ram Sena, Hindu Jagrana Vedeke and the like must be banned! Do they actually serve to anything productive for the entire nation? In times of terror attacks, bomb blasts, infiltration and massacres by extremists outfits do they actually stand up for protecting our country like they say, or is it only to menace the general public? If so, we definitely don’t need them!
3. We do not need so many so-called patriotic groups to protect us. What is the law there for then? Please do not allow the formation of all these unwanted groups just to create havoc for the common man

This is all we ask for. Is this too much?

The Citizens and Youth of Mangalore