by Anil Machado

Created on: February 01, 2009   Last Updated: February 20, 2009

Last month around 40 activists of Pro-Hindu party Sri Ram Sena stormed into a pub, in Mangalore and beat up women. They justified that the presence of these girls in a pub was against the Hindu culture. The actions of Sri Ram Sena are quite similar to that of Taliban in Afghanistan.

There is no law in India banning girls from visiting pubs, so how can a group justify their criminal action. More ever the police were initially inactive in arresting the culprits, as they said there was no formal police complaint lodged by the girls who were attacked. I suppose the video relay by the NDTV wasn't enough for the police to follow up action. However, the growing intolerance, unemployment, lack of education and envy against the modernization of women in India is the root cause in the name of religious fanaticism.

Holding law in hand and using force is not what Hinduism teaches and neither did lord Rama justify crime against the women in Ramayana. Therefore, I suppose the government should impose severe punishment on the Sri Ram Sena to use the very name of Ram to commit such crime against women's modesty. Its easier said then done, but we don't expect that such acts against women will be the last one. The crime against women especially in the state of Karnataka will further increase we never know what would be the next reason. Could it be for wearing T-shirts and jeans, or maybe even visiting cinema halls or malls. I presume the Sri Ram Sena might even introduce a compulsion of wearing veils for the women and even prohibition on women moving around other then non-family members.

Are we seeing a total fanatical culture like Afghanistan or Saudi in rising. Will such incidents give rise to some more acts of justified aggression against women in other parts of India's well? we don't know how the government authorities have decided to restrict such actions at this point and also the stopping of criminal activities by anti-democratic parties like Sri Ram Sena and Bajrang Dal. But its only shameful to see such inhuman videos on news channels being broad-casted all over the world. India is viewed as the regional economic power but acts such like these only tarnish India's image globally. Where was this Sri Ram Sena during the terror attacks in Mumbai last year, Isn't protecting the country from enemy attacks a larger issue or maybe to fight against terrorism is a scary deal. I wonder what kind of courage a party like this will have to defend against enemies when they are content beating up women within its own country. Will women in India ever have their rights ?

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