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Valentine's Day Tamasha
The
pink chaddi campaign has caught on like wild fire and is singeing Sri
Ram Sene activists. The internet-based campaign launched by the
Consortium of Pub Going, Loose and Forward Women has received an
overwhelming response in Rashtriya Hindu Sena Pramod Mutalik’s home
turf in Hubli. Some of the pink women’s underwear, the primary arms in
the hate campaign against right-wing activists who attacked women in a
Mangalore pub, were gift-wrapped, while some others were painted and
sent along with pocket flowers. There were the new ones and then there
were those used. The designs and colours only added to the variety. Sri
Ram Sene public relation officer Krishna Gandaghalekar said the office
received 89 chaddis. “The courier company has told us they would
deliver some more,’’ he said. Distance wasn’t a barrier in the novel
protest as some parcels travelled for over thousands of kilometres.
Most of the packets were from Bangalore, while some also came from
Mumbai and Ahmedabad. Some parcels had a note saying that undelivered
parcels could be returned to the Alternative Law Forum in Bangalore.
Some senders had written their names and phone numbers on the
underwear; some others provocative and insulting messages. Sample this:
“This one stinks. Must be Mutalik’s.’’ Or “Be my Valentine” and “May
you rot in hell wearing this”. The Durga Sena, the SRS women’s wing,
has altered its plans of sending pink saris as return gifts and will
now send a traditional Karnataka sari, bangles and a sindur pack to the
protesting women to instill in them the values of “Indian women’’,
Mutalik said. Leaders of the Hindu Rashtriya Sena and its offshoot Sri
Ram Sene were taken into preventive custody on Friday. Sena chief
Pramod Mutalik was arrested in Kamalapura in Gulbarga district along
with three of his aides while returning from Humnabad in Bidar after
attending a wedding. Gulbarga SP B A Padmanayan said they were taken
into preventive custody under Section 107 of the CrPC. In Mangalore,
Sene convener Prasad Attavar and his aides were taken into custody from
the venue where they had finished addressing a press conference.
Beefing up their vigil on moral policing, the Bangalore police took 136
people into custody. “If anyone tries to create mischief on February
14, they will be booked under various IPC sections,’’ city police
commissioner Shankar Bidari warned. In a volte-face, the Bajrang Dal
has said it does not have any objections to Valentine’s Day as long as
youths behave decently.
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