It wouldn’t be too far-fetched to say that one image sealed the BJP’s prospects in coastal Karnataka: three girls cowering in sheer fright in front of a bellowing mob. In July last year, when a handful of youngsters were celebrating a friend’s birthday at a homestay party in Mangalore, a mob of over 50 goons belonging to the Hindu Jagar­ana Vedike—an affiliate of the Rashtriya Swa­yamsevak Sangh—attacked them, supposedly to protect ‘Bharatiya samskriti’ from getting corrupted. The girls were nearly stri­pped, beaten black and blue and physically molested. The partying boys fared no better. As if that was not humiliation enough, all of them were hauled off to the police station while the goons who attacked them celebrated their success in front of the policemen.

The backlash was swift and severe. Though right-wing group leaders accused the youth of indulging in “sex work” and tried to protect their marauding brigade, youngsters in the coastal region saw through these ‘immoral policing’ tactics....