India's Taliban may hurt BJP

[Prodigy17]

India's "Taliban" may hurt BJP

Tue Jan 27, 2009 4:01pm IST

By Matthias Williams
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - An attack by Hindu hardliners on women in a pub in Mangalore is threatening to dent the reputation of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) before elections due by May.
Police have arrested dozens of members of the Sri Ram Sena, a Hindu militant group who some Indian media are referring to as "India's Taliban" after it assaulted women on Saturday in BJP-run Karnataka.
TV crews filmed members of the group beating women as they chased them out of the pub. The activists said they were trying to safeguard traditional Indian culture.
The BJP has condemned the attack as an "unacceptable act of hooliganism".
But the party has struggled to distance itself from attacks that many national newspapers and television reports say could have only happened in a Hindu-nationalist governed state.
"Is this the direction that BJP governments want the country to head towards?" the Mail Today said in an editorial.
Some analysts suspect the party wants to shore up its Hindu vote base before general elections. Such a strategy has worked in the past, but may well harm its image at a national level, they added.
"It's a calculated experiment," said political analyst N. Bhaskara Rao. "It's a strategy towards polarising voters."
India's ruling Congress party charged the BJP-run state government with complicity in the attack, saying such acts could not have happened without the government's support.
"I think the BJP will definitely be hurt in this," said political analyst Kuldip Nayar.
The BJP in turn has accused Congress of playing politics and rejected being tarred with the same brush as Hindu vigilantes.
The BJP's condemnation was seen by some analysts as politically expedient.
"Before the elections the BJP want to show a more benign face," said political analyst Amulya Ganguli.
Swapan Dasgupta, a political analyst with links to the BJP, said the party sees the Sri Ram Sena as a "damned nuisance", and is too moderate for the Sri Ram Sena's liking.
Various hardline Hindu groups have acted as self-appointed custodians of Indian culture and values before, especially against what they say is a polluting Western influence.
Valentine's Day, open displays of public affection, Hindu-Muslim relationships, and the works of India's most celebrated painter M.F. Husain, vilified for his nude depictions of Hindu deities, have sparked a violent backlash in the past.
It is an assault some ascribe to the dislocation caused by India's recent economic boom, and the gap between an affluent, urban youth embracing Western values and the more traditional rest of society, whether older or poorer.
Dr Rao compared Saturday's assault to some of the worst religious violence in years, mainly by Hindus on Christians, in southern and eastern India last year.
As tens of thousands of Christians fled to government relief camps in Orissa, where most of the violence was concentrated, Christian leaders at the time accused Hindu nationalists of targeting Christians for political gain.

India's Taliban may hurt BJP | Top News | Reuters

 

[Prodigy17]

Interesting to know that Moral Policing is not restricted to islamic extremists only. Hindu extremists are as active as anyone in this regard...........


Girls at pub chased, beaten up, molested in Mangalore
Maya Sharma

Sunday, January 25, 2009, (Mangalore)
In an incident of moral policing in Karnataka, a group of men in Mangalore attacked a group of women in a pub on Saturday afternoon.

The attack was carried out by members of the Sri Ram Sena, who said they had received complaints from the public about the presence of young women.

The five or six women in the pub were chased out and hit by the self-appointed moral police. Members of the Sri Ram Sena have justified their actions.

"The public had complained to us," said Dinakar Shetty, legal advisor to Sri Ram Sena.

The police have made ten arrests in the case - charging the men with criminal assault, intimidation, outrage of modesty and criminal trespass.
"Strong action will be taken against the culprits," said A M Prasad, Inspector General, west Mangalore.

This is sadly not an isolated incident of groups taking the law into their own hands. Churches and prayer halls around Mangalore were attacked just a few months ago over alleged conversions. In Bangalore, rave parties on the outskirts of the city were raided - not by police - but by members of the Kannada Rakshana Vedike.

A state that once had a strong image of peace and tolerance seems to be heading in a very different direction now.

PTI adds:

Ten suspected activists of Sri Ram Sena were arrested and remanded to judicial custody till January 27 on Sunday on charges of assaulting the guests of the pub last night, police said today.

"About 15 to 20 activists, reportedly belonging to Sri Ram Sena, barged into the pub late last night and assaulted boys and girls dancing there," said Inspector General of Police (Western Range) A M Prasad.

Even the girls were not spared by the agitated activists who chased and thrashed the victims when they tried to flee from the pub on the busy Balmatta Road in the heart of the city, eyewitnesses claimed.

The incident was immediately condemned by the opposition Congress and the state National Commission for Women which promised to take suo-motu action against the culprits while the ruling BJP said it was sure that the state government will take strict action against the guilty.

Prasad said the attackers accused the pub owner of allowing the boys and girls to dance and act in an "obscene manner". No damage has been caused to the pub, he added.

Terming the incident as "unfortunate, Karnataka NCW member Nirmala Venkatesh said the attackers had badly beaten victims especially girls and suo-motu action will be taken against them. There were also allegations of some of the girls being molested.

"Those people (attackers) simply came in and started beating the girls. It was a bad scene. Our waiters tried to stop them but they did not listen and kept assaulting the girls," pub owner A Krishna said.

http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv...WEN20090081377

 

[metalfalcon]

Religious Extremism is the Biggest Threat Facing the whole world TODAY and Religious Extremists are Present in Every Religion.

 

[Energon]

I'm glad the moron leading the motley crew of moral protection service agents was arrested.
The concept of people taking it upon them selves to indulge in moral policing under the guise of upholding religious/cultural values is nothing short of ridiculous.

I hope this criminal is prosecuted to the full extent of the law and disbarred from ever holding a position in public service.

 

[Flintlock]

The ease with which words like holocaust/genocide/nazi/taliban are used in the media just to grab attention is pretty annoying and ultimately cheapens the real meaning of these words.

 

[Zovc]

So Islamic extremeist fight Hindu extremist?

 

[hasang20]

Islamic Extremist will win because we are fearless fighters BJP will hide behind sticks !