Hindutva

[acharya]

Indian Currents, Issue 14, 3 April 2005

Cowed Down By Cow

By Mukundan C Menon

The Udupi-Mangalore belt in South Canara of Karnataka was rocked by violence
unleashed by Sangh Parivar in the third week of March. All in the name of
protecting the proverbial Holy Cow.

Notably, the series of violent incidents started soon after the Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh’s three-day ‘Pratinidhi Sabha’ concluded at Mangalore on March
12 expressing serious concern on "declining Hindu population" turning it to
"minority community" in many parts. Later, addressing the RSS rally, its
Sarsangha Sanchalak, K. S. Sudarshan, called upon to rebuild India on Hindu
philosophy "where soul is as important as the mind and body".

The series of violence started the very following day with the shocking incident
of stripping, assaulting and parading nude of two Muslim cattle traders, Hajabba
(60) and his son Hasanabba (25), for about three hours at Adiudupi on March 13
night by activists of Hindu Yuva Sena, Bajrang Dal and VHP alleging that the
victims were transporting a calf in their Maruti van from Moodbettu of Kodavoor
violating the cow slaughter ban in the State. The assault left Hasanabba’s nasal
septum leg fractured and Hajabba’s spine damaged seriously. Both were admitted
to hospital.

What followed was a series of agitations, charges and counter-charges. It
culminated into massive violence in Mangalore on March 24-25, when the RSS
unleashed attacks on Muslims and clashed repeatedly with the police. Tension
loomed large in Mangalore on Good Friday with clamping down of prohibitory
orders.

The Chairperson of Karnataka State Minorities Commission, Mohammed Masood,
wanted the Government to formally declare Udupi and Dakshina Kannada as
communally disturbed districts. "The prevailing social situation", he said, "is
unbearable for Muslims as the fundamentalists are undermining the economic and
social spheres of minorities, especially Muslims".

According to Mazood, the police failed to handle the stripping and parading
incident appropriately which "sent wrong signals to the Muslim community".
Although action should have been taken against the Sub-Inspectors of both Malpe
and Udupi Town police stations, only the former had been placed under
suspension, he said. He also demanded forces with special powers to be deployed
to handle such situations.

The "Karnataka Komu Sauharda Vedike" organised a massive rally and dharna in
front of Udupi Deputy Commissioner’s office on March 19 to protest against the
stripping incident and demanding stringent actions against the culprits
involved. Their memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner also demanded banning of
"reactionary organizations" indulging in violence, action against the police
personnel who support "reactionary forces", resignation of political leaders on
moral grounds owing responsibility for the incident, and action against a
section of media for wrong reporting.

The Udupi district president of Vedika, Rama Diwana, in particular, demanded
suspension of Superintendent of Police, S Murugan, and Deputy Superintendent of
Police, U R Pangam.

In a separated statement, Vedika President, Prof. Rachappa, and Secretary, K. P.
Sripal, said: "The fascist face of Sangh Parivar has been exposed with this
incident. The massacres and communal violence being perpetrated by Sangh Parivar
has now entered Karnataka. A fascist organisation like the Sangh Parivar which
believes in violence has no moral right to talk about Naxalites or
non-violence."

A memorandum to Governor T. N. Chaturvedi submitted by Indian Union Muslim
League (IUML) said: "The act of fanatic Hindu groups were inhuman and barbaric
which were against the human civilization and not heard of in recent years
except at Abu Gaib jail in Iraq."

Senior police officers, especially the Udupi Superintendent of Police, S.
Murugan, was criticized severally for his lapses as well as for his alleged
pro-Hindutva leanings. The Additional Director-General of Police (Law and
Order), Subash Bharani, and Inspector-General of Police (Western Range), H.N.
Sathyanarayana Rao, have reportedly sought explanations from Murugan about the
lapses relating to the stripping incident.

Murugan reportedly came to know about the stripping incident only when the Chief
Minister, N. Dharam Singh, called him from Bangalore to get the details. Senior
officers claim that stripping incident missed their attention since they were
attending another communal flare-up at Majoor, which turned out to be a minor
one, at that time.

Question of jurisdiction dispute also caused the police lapse. The Sub-Inspector
of Malpe police station, C. D. Nagaraj, did not follow up the stripping incident
since it started at Moodabettu area, which falls under the Udupi two police
station limit. Although Cr.P.C. stipulates that a place where an offence is
initially committed is important, no officer can shrug his responsibility on the
plea that it falls beyond his jurisdiction limits. Interestingly, both Malpe and
Udupi town police stations functioned under the Udupi Circle Inspector of
Police, Praveen Naik.

Shockingly, the police officers failed to take cognizance of the offence even
after news reports appeared in the local media. Apparently, the reality stared
in their face after the report about the incident highlighted in a Kannada daily
was raised in the Assembly. Later, both Udupi Circle Inspector Praveen Naik and
Malpe Sub-Inspector Nagaraj were placed under suspension.

Although the cow slaughter has been banned in Karnataka, militant Hindu bodies
take it upon themselves to enforce the law by forcibly blocking transportation
of all cattle, especially cows. Since majority of cattle traders are
traditionally Muslims, it easily gives avenue for occasional communal frictions.
And, there was a motivating pattern. The Hindu militancy on cow slaughter in
Dakshin Canara belt increased after news reports described how Dara Singh, the
killer of Graham Staines and his two children in Orissa, started his own
movement in forcible preventing cows transported to West Bengal. Through South
Canara cattles are transported to Kerala, the foremost beef eating state in
South India which is free from cow slaughter ban.

According to officials, transportation of cattle, especially cows, is on the
rise in the recent past, creating occasional frictions between two communities.
Notably, stringent official actions against transportation of cattle started
under the influence Hindu militancy especially after the NDA dispensation
occupied Central power in 1998-99. Notably, only cow slaughter has been banned
in Karnataka, and not transportation of cattle. However, officials connive with
unofficial Hindu militants’ move to frustrate Muslim traders transporting cattle
of all kinds in the name of Holy Cow.

For the record, police officials say that the incidents of Hindu organisations
confronting people transporting cattle and assaulting them "are viewed
seriously" and cases were booked against people indulging in such acts.
"Similarly, we also take a serious view of people transporting cattle,
especially cows, in violation of laws." Police sources also maintain that they
seriously take into account the underlying tensions while dealing with such
cases since, more often than not, "people transporting cattle are Muslims and
those opposing them are Hindus", which has all elements of communal tension.

Yet, police always are keener to take action against the cattle traders, than
the perpetrators of violence against them, under the notion that "prevention (of
cattle transportation) is better than cure".

At an All Party Peace committee meeting held at Udupi Deputy Commissioner’s
Office on March 22, the Deputy Commissioner T. Sham Bhatt announced: "The
district administration will provide information about Cow Slaughter Prohibition
Act to the public. If there is any violation of law, information should be given
to the departments concerned. No one should take law into his hands. If the
officials did not respond, then superior officials should be approached."

As arrests started belatedly on the stripping incident, various Sangh Parivar
bodies started making allegations to divert attention from the main issue. The
Udupi district unit of Hindu Yuva Sena took out a protest march on March 17
against what it termed "political attempts" to implicate them in the case. It
wanted the police to stop arresting its activists and the cases filed against
them should be withdrawn. Instead, the district administration should take
action against those violating the Cow Slaughter Prohibition Act, the Sena
resolution demanded.

Diverting the issue to new dimensions with a tinge of jingoistic sensationalism,
the Udupi district President of BJP, K. Raghupati Bhat, alleged that
pro-Pakistan slogans were raised at the March 19 rally by the Karnataka Komu
Sauharda Vedike. Besides raising "anti-India and anti-Hindu slogans", speakers
at the rally insulted Swamijis of the Ashta Mutts and the whole Hindu community.
According to Bhat, "the rally was supported by divisive forces, naxalites, and
Pakistani agents".

Armed with baseless reports in a section of local media, other Sangh Parivar
bodies also alleged that Pakistan flags were waved at the rally. There were also
demands to arrest all of them as subversive elements, and to treat those who
engaged in cow slaughter as criminals.

Officials, however, disputed these allegations as frivolous. According to Udupi
Superintendent of Police, Murugan, nobody was heard shouting pro-Pakistan
slogans in the police video graphs of the entire rally.

He also disputed the allegation about waving Pakistan flag, saying that the flag
shown in certain press photographs was not the national flag of Pakistan. To
prove his point, the SP took out a calendar of flags and showed that Pakistan’s
national flag was different from those appeared in some newspapers.

"I am receiving calls from both sides — one side asking how the "Pakistani flag"
was allowed to display in the rally, and another saying that the flag used was
not "Pakistani flag", the exhausted officer on apparent verge of dejection said.

Stoutly refuting charges of using Pakistan flag and raising pro-Pak slogans,
president of Udupi district of Karnataka Komu Sauharda Vedike, Sriram Divana,
demanded legal action against the newspapers which had wrongly depicted a flag
of a "dargah" as the national flag of Pakistan. All the slogans shouted at the
rally were pre-determined and not one of them was anti-patriotic, he said. With
the aid of photographs, he showed the drastic difference between the "dargah
flag" and Pakistan national flag. The lone exceptional similarity between the
two, however, is its green color.

That leaves a moot question to ponder: Is green colour, too, a taboo for
Hindutva variety of patriotism?

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