Love in the time of moral cops

A mutiny of a different kind has taken over Gen Y as they want to fill pubs and hug friends to revolt against moral policing by the Sri Rama Sene leader, Pramod Mutalik.

The Sene leader is the new pop villain of sorts on the internet. Search for him on popular sites like Facebook, Orkut and Blogger and he can spring up quite a few surprises.

Mutalik’s threats against those who celebrate V-Day and defence of the attack on girls in a Mangalore pub has sparked off protests, both online and offline. Most of these protests, in fact, are being initiated online.

The most significant development through the internet has been the group, “A Consortium of Loose, Pub-going and Modern Women”.

The group has initiated two movements which have gathered everyone’s attention.
While the ‘Pink Chaddi Campaign’ has got people scandalised, their ‘Pub Bharo and Hug Karo Campaign’ has people getting ready across the city.  The Pub Bharo campaign will be held at the MG Road-Brigade Road intersection all through the day on February 14.

“I feel that both these movements hold great potential in showing the Sri Rama Sene how their views are slightly warped. Gifting pink chaddi to Mutalik is in your face, but the Pub Bharo campaign will make a stronger statement,” says Shreya Ghosh, a first year BA student, who is propagating these campaigns in her class and some other colleges.

The campaigns are taking over the corporate offices too. “We think that the idea of sending Valentine’s Day cards to Mutalik is a good idea. We’ve joined a group on Facebook and are getting people to collect these cards together and send it to his office,” says Atrima Dey, a software professional with Accenture.

There are some online groups that have become hits with the netizens. One such reads ‘Practice Kamasutra, it’s Indian culture Mr Mutalik’. There are around 10 Facebook groups that are anti-Mutalik and two fake profiles, while Orkut has 13 groups that are addressed to the Sri Rama Sene Supremo.

On February 12, Bangaloreans have been asked to “step out” of their offices, “stand up” for their rights and “stamp out” fundamentalism. This is in response to the “Bengaluru Unites” protest call, issued by a fellow Bangalorean, Rajeev Gowda of IIM, Bangalore.

On his blog bengaluru-unites.blogspot.com, Prof Gowda beseeches his fellow citizens of free India to “Join hands in protest, Raise slogans: Against Moral Policing; Against Attacks On Women; For Our Freedom”.

There is evidently much consternation against moral policing, with people “angry and disgusted”, Gowda says. “Upset at hooligans telling us what we can or cannot do”, outpourings of protest on the streets do send a clear message: “we have had enough”.
“The usually apathetic urban citizen regards ‘politics’ as something unclean from which he has to keep away from” says Gowda. Aware of the insecurities and constraints facing the urban citizens’ “shyness” to protest, Gowda has devised a protest with a difference. He has factored in the myriad excuses citizens make while organising this initiative that takes “protest to the people”.

At precisely 1:30 pm — which is everybody’s lunch hour, Gowda is exhorting people to gather outside their workplaces “as free citizens to express our anguish about the attacks on our fundamental rights”.Explaining the timing, Gowda says,“Lunchtime on a working day — that is not Valentine’s Day, which would cause other tangential discussions on culture — is ideal.”

“People do not even need to seek the permission of their colleges or offices to step out and join hands to demonstrate their feelings,” he adds.

Rajeev Gowda hopes to make the difference on Thursday.  Bengaluru will put to the test a protest designed to cause minimal disruption; for the convenience of the urban citizen to express his anguish by ‘Stepping Out, Standing Up and Stamping Out’ infringements on his or her fundamental rights — post lunch of course.