People's Democracy

Mangalore Incident Evokes Strong Condemnation

ABOUT forty activists of Sri Rama Sene barged into Amnesia Pub in Mangalore on January 24, 2009, evening and ransacked the pub, attacked girls, molested them, tried to tear their clothes and beat the girls and boys who came to their rescue. They were raising slogans in the name of Sri Rama Sene and Bajrang Dal. DYFI delegation visited the pub on January 25 and condemned the incident.

On behalf of the Party, G N Nagaraj visited Mangalore and addressed the media, condemning the attacks of Sri Rama Sene and demanded severe action by the state government. He described it as a continuation of attacks on democratic rights in the coastal region of Karnataka for the past several years. If Hindu and Muslim boys and girls talk to each other, whether as students or as colleagues, there have been continuous attacks by the Sangh Parivar organisations. Very recently there has been attack on a bus where students were proceeding on a school trip which involved boys and girls of different religions. On January 23, 2009 there was also an attack on a house where Christian and Hindu friends arranged party.

Such incidents have become rampant after BJP came to power. Sri Rama Sena, Bajrang Dal, VHP, Hindu Sene and other Sangh Parivar�s organisations have been emboldened after BJP government came to power.

Nagaraj also demanded action against Sri Rama Sene. It caused communal disturbances a few months back in Bangalore by throwing pork in front of a Masjid. It is also involved in the bomb blast case of Hubli Court which happened in the middle of the Assembly elections. There are reports that they have links with the accused in Malegaon blast case. They were also involved in several instances of extortions.

There have been protests in Mangalore by progressive organisations where mass organisations like SFI and DYFI also participated on January 25. DYFI independently organised protest on January 27. JMS has organised a protest in Bangalore and in other places on January 27 and in Mangalore on 28th.

These organisations have demanded the arrest of Pramod Muthalik, the head of Sri Rama Sene. While 27 Sri Rama Sene activists have been arrested, 10 were released on bail. Pramod Muthalik has been arrested on January 27 on a different case.

Pramod Muthalik was the head of Bajrang Dal in Karnataka. Since two years, after BJP shared power in the coalition government, he split out from Bajrang Dal and formed a separate outfit called Hindu Sene and Sri Rama Sene is its sub-unit and they project themselves as more militant organisations than VHP, Bajrang Dal etc.