The first post of this year and sadly, it’s not on a very good news that has happened in Mangalore.

Anybody who is anybody (and has a TV set) would have seen the ghastly act by the right wing outfit Sri Rama Sene on Saturday, Jan 24. These hooligans barged into a pub and beat the girl customers like animals.

The incident itself is curious and steeped in intrigue.

For instance, this is probably the first time I’m seeing a planned attack with media coverage. Assaults of this nature are generally done without warning. These hooligans seem to have mediapersons along with them right from the beginning.

Which takes us to the possibility that these hooligans might have had a more than impulsive reason to attack the place. But the accounts of the “reason” have been varying: from ‘Hindu girls hanging out with Muslim boys’ to ‘a girl pulling off her top and performing striptease’ have been doing rounds.

But irrespective of the reason, Sri Rama Sene activists do not have any right to assault anybody, much less women. They must remember that they call themselves “moral police” and going by that logic they are not employees of the police force, which means they do not have the rights to assault anyone.

Talking of police, where were our cops when this incident took place? The media were informed but the cops didn’t get a sniff of an attack? That’s very strange, given the fact that our cops have proved in the past that they are not intellectually challenged.

To give them credit, they have been doing a decent job. The murder in the highly sensitive Suratkal area few days ago had all the elements to turn into a full-fledged communal riot. There was murder, revenge, politics and religion. But the cops did a great job of handling the situation and checked the spread of violence before it turned ugly.

This assault incident has again put a question mark on the integrity of our city cops. Why were they not there when media people managed to arrive in time and film it? Why the delay in filing the FIR? And why, such lax retaliation against the perpetrators?

I have not been to the pub in question till now but I do visit certain other pubs occasionally and from what I have observed the general situation concerning girls, partying and indecency is not at all bad, much less warrant such an incident.

But my other observation is that the right wingers do not need a strong reason for questioning, assaulting and bullying in general. Just like any other bully, these guys have no clue what they are or what they think they are. These guys feel that if they see a guy and girl together they have the rights to question their credentials (and they do it).

This behaviour reminds me of a certain Islamic outfit that has been doing the same kind of activities in a place called Afghanistan. I think the outfit is called Taliban.

And just like Taliban’s disgusting behaviour and principles have made Afghanistan synonymous with Taliban, there will come a time in future when our beloved Mangalore will be synonymous with Hindutva elements and their principles.

And just like Taliban and Afghanistan, Mangalore will also be shunned.

Unless these self-styled moral police are not controlled!