Moral Policing Has Not Yet Stopped In Karnataka
By
Syed Ali Mujtaba, New Age Islam
28 June
2023
Moral
policing has not yet stopped in Karnataka. This is in spite of the fact that
the government in the state has changed from the right extreme to the middle of
the centre.
The story
goes like this…A group of youngsters comprising two Muslims and a Hindu boy
along with two Hindu girls went for a sightseeing tour from Mangaluru to
Madikeri in Karnataka’s Kodagu district.
After
visiting Abbey Falls, they parked their car in Madikeri and hired a jeep to
travel to Mandalpatti Peak.
When the
youngsters returned to the spot where they had parked the car, they were
allegedly surrounded by a group of 30 people, who questioned the
inter-religious nature of the group.
The three
boys were allegedly beaten up and their two female friends were verbally abused
by the mob that also photographed them and punctured the tires of their car.
The
attackers allegedly questioned the presence of two Muslims Mohammed Shamseer
(24), Saman Sajeed (23) in the group.
The mob allegedly beat up all three men in the group. The women were
verbally abused for having bad character.
The mob
punctured the tires of the car in which the victims travelled from Mangaluru to
Madikeri. They also took pictures of all five members of the group and
circulated them on social media.
Prime face
this pertains to the case of moral policing involving suspected right-wing
activists. This region of Karnataka is notorious for Hindu fanatics who prowl
at such instances of interfaith friendship.
On the
basis of a complaint filed by Nanda Krishnan (26), a case has been registered
at the Madikeri rural police with charges of wrongful restraint, intentional
insult, unlawful assembly with arms, rioting, criminal intimidation and
voluntarily causing hurt. The Madikeri rural police have yet to make any
arrests in this case.
The
Congress government in Karnataka had hinted that it will not tolerate such kind
of moral policing in the state. Congress’s Chittapur MLA, Priyank Kharge said
the Congress will ban the RSS if it tries to disrupt peace in the state. In
reply to this, Karnataka BJP chief Nalin Kumar Kateel warned the Congress if it
tries to ban Bajrang Dal or the RSS, it will "burn the entire state into
ashes."
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Syed Ali
Mujtaba is a journalist based in Chennai.
URL: https://newageislam.com/current-affairs/moral-policing-karnataka/d/130091