Pink 'chaddis' are fine, purple paint is not

I do not know how you reacted to that fleeting image of the scowling but blackened face of Pramod Mutalik. To be honest, for a second I thought it was a very well deserved retaliatory action but only for a second.

Just as what Mutalik’s followers in Mangalore did to women a year ago — hounding them out of a bar/restaurant and physically assaulting them — was wrong, blackening the face of Sri Rama Sene’s chief by youth congress workers was equally wrong. No one, not even those who invoke Rama’s name, but do not think twice before taking law into their hands and assaulting unsuspecting citizens, ought to be dealt with this way.

However, as they say, you die by the sword if you live by the sword. You will have your face blackened one day if you turn tarnishing the reputation of others into an occupation. Mutaliks of the world know this very well. Even then that is their only capital and that is their only rough road to limelight.

It is not as if the leaders or the followers of Sri Rama Sene belong to the age of cavemen and want everyone to follow values of those times. They belong to this age but want to regulate society by selectively using values that are obscurantist by any stretch. Even the so-called moral policing that they practice is often a mere tool to establish supremacy in a community in which they would otherwise be irrelevant in a democratic context. The Mutaliks of the world rarely win a seat but still remain important because they have a certain nuisance value.

So, even if carton loads of pink chaddis were sent to him last year, around Valentine’s Day, there is no sense of shame among his followers at receiving that kind of treatment by free-spirited women. In fact, the Sri Rama Sene chief and his followers may not even have thought of that particular pink chaddi movement as an insult.
If they did, they would not, this time again, threaten to force all unmarried couples to tie the knot and generally disrupt celebrations this Valentine’s Day.

As is the case with most such silly and obscure movements, the antics of the likes of the Sri Rama Sene chief will cease to have shock value. The state has seen many such oddballs in the past but Mr Mutalik will forever be remembered for inviting the pink chaddi movement, a distinction most people would consider pretty notorious.

A key factor that helps such oddballs survive and even occupy centre stage for a while is the tacit support they receive. In this particular case, even though the BJP leaders may be averse to both Sri Rama Sene and Mutalik because they seem to be competing in the same politico-religious space, the ruling party is somewhat helpless in dealing with these elements because, at some level, there is implicit agreement on the cause they espouse even if the methods do not find approval. That is what gives such fringe groups sufficient elbow room.

No matter how obnoxious their activities are, paying them back in their own coin is not on. Pink chaddis are fine but purple paint is not. That is the line one needs to draw and one should never cross even if, for a fleeting moment, it brings a smile for serving just desserts.