Indian media continues to expose Indian government and its anti-Pakistan stance by highlighting the loopholes in the fabricated stories of the central state on one hand and pointing fingers to the Hindu hard-liners for their 'Taliban' type behaviour.
Equating the Hindu hard-liners with the fundamentals across the border in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the leading newspapers in their stories term them as 'Indian Talibans'.
The Indian Express carried a story on the subject in its January 27,2009 issue, "The Taliban of Mangalore" reveals the real players behind an attack on a pub in Mangalore on January 24 in the name of religion. The Hindustan Times in its story, "They are thugs, not custodians" narrates the incident, "a bunch of hooligans had beaten up girls who were having a good time at a pub in Mangalore. A group calling itself Sri Ram Sena was apparently offended at what it decreed was 'obscene dancing' by the girls and proceeded to take the law into its own hands. This is not the first such instance in Karmataka that is considered among the most cosmopolitan states in the country."
The newspaper hitting hard on the right wing Hindu organisations terms them as 'goons' who have broken the law. "We have seen a rash of self-appointed moral guardians telling people what art is 'acceptable' and what they should wear or read. Such proscriptions have no place in a diverse democracy like ours." The newspaper stresses that the victims of this hooliganism have committed no crime therefore it should be nobody's business to disturb them or thrash them. It's the hooligans who under quasi-religious tag, took law into their hands and should be made an example to deter future self-righteous busy bodies.
However the newspaper fears the interference of political parties in such matters helps the hooligans roam free. "The kid glove-treatment meted out to the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena and its parochial campaign has done incalculable damage to the cosmopolitan nature of Mumbai. Similarly, this attitude of 'boys will be boys' has led the Shiv Sena and its like to attack couples on Valentine's day and prescribe how good Indians, especially women, should behave."
"Yet, the same good men who are so free with their diktats express horror at the Taliban and its cohorts laying down sartorial and social codes for people. Quote clearly, the Sri Ram Sena, or all its allegiance to benevolent God-King, is closer to the misogynistic, liberty-hating Taliban than it thinks." The Indian Express revealing the background of these unscrupulous Indian Taliban states that Belgaum-based Pramod Muttalik had created the Right-wing Hindu group-Sri Rama Sene after he was expelled from the Bajrang Dal (Another Hindu religious body) in 2004. Sri Rama Sene (Dal or Sene means Army), Newspaper writes, "has been at the forefront of several moral policing incidents and communal violence in the Mangalore region in the last three years."
The proudly claiming it as "spontaneous reaction" to the so called "violation of Indian norms of decency, the attack on a pub in Mangalore is the latest "deed" of the Sri Rama Sene. The paper also discloses that the outfit has been recently linked, though denied by Muttalik himself, to a bomb blast in a Hubil court in May 2008, following the arrest of a gang of alleged dacoits, several of whom are believed to have a history of association with groups like the Sene. "Pravin Muttalik, an alleged relative of the Sri Rama Sene chief, again denied by Pramod Muttalik, has also been implicated as a key accused in the investigations of Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) into the Malegaon blasts of 2008."
The newspaper traced the history of the Sene and its impact on its surrounding and states that the Sri Rama Sene's stronghold, the coastal Karnataka region that saw a surge in communal politics in the aftermath of the 1991 Babri Masjid demolition.
"Drawing its cadre from the young, community inclined rowdy elements, the Sene has been primarily involved in moral policing activities like preventing inter religious ties, preventing the slaughter of cows and inciting communal violence in the region. In 2005, the Sene was responsible for an attack on a bus carrying the employees of a local store in Mangalore. The employees, both Hindus and Muslims, were going on a picnic organised by their employers. Sene activities attacked the bus accusing the storeowners of encouraging relationships between Hindu and Muslims.
Numerous other incidents where Sene activists have monitored inter-religious relationships and attacked non-Hindus have been reported over the past three years.
In another infamous incident in 2005, an elderly man, Hasanaba, and his son were stripped and dragged in a field after they were found in a local market by Sene cadre allegedly attempting to sell a calf." "The self appointed moral policemen from the Sene are alleged to have been involved in the communal violence in Mangalore in October 2006 that resulted in the imposition of three days of curfew in the district. The violence started after Sene men tried to chase down a truck allegedly carrying cows to an slaughterhouse in the heart of Mangalore. The Sene is alleged to have actively participated in the violence that followed, including the stabbing of a youth who was being taken to the then newly opened Mangalore airport to catch a flight to Dubai."
However, the newspaper deplores, with the BJP being sympathetic to such groups and being in some form of power in Karnataka since 2006, key leaders of the Sene have courted arrest for several of these acts of violence but without any serious charges being pressed against them.
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