For almost two decades India has been held ransom by the ravages of various groups and formations purporting to be custodians of ‘Indian culture’. For close to twenty years we have watched them vandalise property and intimidate people for their lifestyle, behaviour or apparel. And with each incident their power seems to increase. This time, it seems, however, that they may have gone too far. The sight of lumpen youth, under the banner of a local group called the Sri Ram Sene brutally attacking young women in the afternoon at a pub in Mangalore has finally provoked nationwide outrage.

Reacting to the incident, the Congress maintained that it was not an isolated law and order problem but reflected ‘a philosophy of divisiveness and intolerance of religion and caste being propagated in the Bharatiya Janata Party ruled and supported states’. The BJP for its part, directed the blame to an ‘autonomous organisation’. Members of the Sangh Parivar generally associated with incidents of this nature also distanced themselves; a VHP spokesperson condemned the episode on a television show while the Delhi-based commentator, Swapan Dasgupta, in a column in this paper sought  to draw a distinction between the RSS and the ‘hoodlums’ who perpetrated the attacks.

Given that the Mangalore incident is one in a long list of similar attacks, most of which have evoked no more than a few minutes of TV coverage, this political grandstanding is likely to have much to do with the looming elections. But is it at all convincing? 

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