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Moral Policing - or talibanisation?
Written By narayan82 - 27 January, 2009
law and order Mangalore suggestion violence policing Mobocracy
In case you have missed it on the news, here is a complete report.
The case of the attack on girls at a pub in Mangalore, has really shocked many of us. Shocked, not because this is the first time, but because words like "talibanisation" have been brought to our doorstep! What we cursed them for, what we almost supported a war against is now happening in our own back and front yards!
Firstly, I think we have to agree (a majority of us) that the freedom of choosing any religion or culture wrests with the individual. It is not up to you, him or god to tell me whom to follow, what to wear and what my "culture" is. It is a basic freedom that our republic offers. So, when groups such as Ram Sena and others justify these attacks with sayings such as "This is not in our culture" - I fail to see the point!
I strongly believe that we need to have an independent, non political body to govern moral policing in India. Political parties, left right or centre never seem to take action against them. Its either a weapon against the other party or a shield against themselves.
Also, a strong signal must be sent from people that such practices will not be accepted. For which, we need to find out from ourselves, if we are all for it, or apathetic to it or against it! I think such bodies that conduct these attacks are immune to Bands, protests and other traditional forms of protesting.
At the same time, we need a good educational system that channels our "culture" and "moral values" in a manner, where children/youngsters are aware of it and cam make conscious decision whom to "follow" and what their culture need be. This way, soon hopefully we will have a more holistic bunch of rulers in our growing and emerging country.
I remember there were a few more Blog entries, at the start of BSY's tenure about the increase in moral policing in the Mangalore are and the home minister's response was that he will "look into it." Well i do sure hope he does look deeper into it this time around!
At the very least I hope the people responsible - and I mean those responsible and not only the messengers - are brought down, and treated as per the law. That would be a quick pain killer to the situation.
Rediff.com reported an interesting quote by a lawyer "If you take the Pub out of a republic all your left ith is a Relic!" - How appropriate right now!
COMMENTS
silkboard - 28 January, 2009 - 02:39
I hnoestly think that use of terms like talibanisation etc are overkill for this incident. Its a law and order problem, key is to probe and see if some political party or figure used "these methods" to settle scores with either the pub owner here. These things usually work that way.
I wonder if lack of strong action in the recent incidents of attacks on churches have encouraged the "let me fix it myself" groups. The deeper truth of the church attacks were like this:
One group within the christians in Dakshin Kannada region are seen (from first hand knowledge, I know that they are) very aggressive towards conversion. And, there is reasonable resentment towards their methods. The 'attacks' were directed towards only this group, not all churches.Government has been a little light (now, this is an allegation, I have not verified this in any credible way) as they know they have some "ground support" in this "indirect" stance against aggressive conversions.
However, letting vandals get away with such acts is not the way to deal with the situation. If it feels the need to act, it must explore legal ways (however controversial) like banning conversion for meny or whatever.
I am afraid that "light punishment" approach may have set bad precedents for the region. Folks of all kinds could use "these methods" to settle scores or brag about their ideologies.
Don't worry Narayan - this is just the start. I am just amazed that these people take it on themselves to usher in Indian culture - whatever that means.
If Mutalik wants to live in the past he is welcome to. He can stop wearing tailored clothes, wear clogs, stop using toothpaste, go walking or in a chariot or on horseback, stop using electricity (of course these sort claim that electricity and planes were invented by the ancient Hindus!), don't go by train anywhere, etc etc. He can ask his Sene to do the same. We can have Sati once again and burn women who don't bring enough dowry in. BTW Nazis had similar ideas about a great and glorious German history. They also believed that a woman's primary duty was to give birth to babies and take care of them at home.
With a government that actually spent money warding off "bad luck" from a solar eclipse by doing pujas all over the state, I doubt we can expect anything rational. These people also form part of their vote bank and BSY cannot antagonize them too much.
We don't need moral policing - independent or otherwise. There is the normal police and there is the law.
You're right - if we keep quiet, then we will be next in line. How do we send a strong message out?
Srivathsa
bialterminal - 28 January, 2009 - 04:23
Shooting the messenger - thats what we are doing!
narayan82 - 28 January, 2009 - 04:24
Srivatsa,
Good point there about lifetyle's of the moral policers!
So leads me to the same question - how do we send that message out? Firstly, I think arresting the 27 culprits - isn't going to solve anything. They were simply messengers. They were probabbly college students/drop outs who were sent there to accomplish a task. Which is why the whole issue of the molesting charges came up. These messengers were given a free ticket to do what they want in order to "punish" them. So, my jailing these 27, nothing is going to stop the next 27 from doing another attack.
What we really have to do is crack down on such fundamentalist organisations. To me, they are the same - whatever religion! Yes, it is a free country and we can practice any "culture" we want, but at the same time, we must protect the other persons right to do so. And this can be done through a good education system. If we mentally enforce this right to the new generation from an early stage, hopefully in the future such organisations will not have the taskforce of support.
But I also have this feeling that this whole item is nothing but a political ploy!
Narayan Gopalan
User Interaction Designer
Bangalore
silkboard - 29 January, 2009 - 05:53
Taking a step back, there needs to some legal step to introduce strong penalties for "disrupting public order". I am no legal expert. May be this already exists, but the thing we are looking for is a strong tool to deal with "mobocracy".
Collect 20 people, and you can get away with anything today - damage to public property, attack to business establishments, rallies that disrupt life in our city - all these are symptoms of the same disease - some people think that "mobs can get away as along as there is no murder involved".
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