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Journalism of Courage
In Mangalore,the moral polices new capital,Valentines Day was marked by empty malls,cafes,ice-cream parlours,parks and pubs. Couples chose to stay away while the men who gave love a bad namethe moral police cooled their heels in prison cells. Khaki overshadowed the red and white colours of the Valentine Days marketing machine as policemen guarded rendezvous points around the city.
Coming exactly three weeks after Mangalores moral police,drawn from right wing Hindu outfits like the Sri Rama Sene,ran riot in a local pub and then attacked young couples around the city,there was no accumulated head rush of love for Valentines Day.
For the girls who had been at the receiving end of the pub attack,there was no question of going out on Valentines Day. The pub remained shut as well.
The girls are not willing to go out now after what happened that day, said the mother of a young Mangalorean girl.
After the pub attack,the Sri Rama Sene had threatened to disrupt Valentines Day celebrations and to forcibly marry off young couples found together on the day. The Sene however later backtracked and said they would work with the police in informing the families of such couples. Key leaders of the Sene,including its chief Pramod Muttalik and the Mangalore unit head Prasad Attavar,were taken into preventive custody on Friday but girls in the city were still frightened to step out.
Says Shruthi K,the teenage daughter of a Kerala MLA,who was roughed up for talking to a Muslim boy on a bus on February 6,I think Ive had enough for a lifetime on that one day. Theres no Valentines Day for me. My friends were planning to do something but now they are afraid.
The five men arrested for the attack were released on bail on February 13. But on Saturday,the police took 63 more people into custody as part of the preventive measures clamped in Karnataka. Director General and Inspector General of Police for Karnataka Ajai Kumar Singh remained in Mangalore over the last three days,overseeing police arrangements and interacting with the public. We will impart the law impartially, he told a gathering of citizens on Friday after an 18-year-old girl from a local college said she felt unsafe even in a hall surrounded by policemen.
The police have also decided to order a Corps of Detectives probe into the suicide of a 15-year-old girl in the district after she was humiliated by alleged members of the Bajrang Dal and later beaten by her father for being in the company of a Muslim man. The man has been accused of rape and abetment of suicide.
