Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (ANK)

Mangaluru, Jan 3: Social activist Vidya Dinaker on Wednesday January 3 urged the state home minister to intervene in the rising cases of immoral rowdyism (moral policing) by right-winged outfits in the coastal region.

She was addressing a discussion on moral policing with students of various colleges and other activists at School of Social Work, Roshni Nilaya here.

"The situation in the coastal region is turning from bad to worse. Police department, district administration and law and order have completely failed. We have been targeted one way or the other. We had earlier spoken to the police commissioner on the rising issue of moral policing in the coastal region but no action has been taken so far," Vidya Dinker said.

"There is no concept like love Jihad, it is just love affair or a love marriage. The term love Jihad is used in a negative term to create a kind of war between religions through love. Now VHP and Bajrang Dal have started to sensitize people by distributing pamphlets on ‘Love Jihad’. They have also drawn limits about the term. During a recent interview in TV channel Bajrang Dal leader Sharan Pumpwell claimed that 100 Hindu girls have disappeared due to ‘Love Jihad’. I had asked him the details of those 100 missing girls so that we can have an open talk on this and discuss with the authorities concerned for suitable action. It is not right to keep the issue under the carpet and avoid raising it openly.

"We need to speak with the home minister as he should intervene immediately to tackle the deteriorating situation of coastal region," added Dinker.

Addressing the gathering, activist Shabeer said, "If you take the Pilikula incident, they visited Pilikula as students and not with the tagline of any religion. This mindset has to be changed. Instead of arresting these goons, police brought the students outside the Pilikula water park. Police should have stopped the goons but here students were hurdled and they were moving freely. One of them even thrashed a girl in the presence of police."

Responding to this, Vidya Dinaker said, “This shows that police have become the foot soldiers of these goons. We have to know who informed the police. Police claimed that the students were into illegal activities. If something illegal is happening inside the park then close the park.”

One of the students said, “It was sad that their IDs were shamelessly circulated in social media revealing their identity. Such moral policing will definitely influence and there would be sense of fear of getting noted. The fear and its consequences are stopping us from raising the voice. We need to be mentally strong in order to protest against such issues.”

Lecturer Shobana said, “My place has to be safe and I should able to move freely without any problem and it will be every individual’s wish how they want to be and what they want to be. Nobody should question their intent.”

President of Vimukthi Belthangady Fr Vinod said, “Even police are seen favouring these organizations and take decision based upon the religion.”

Vidya Dinaker said, “We should bring this to the notice of child welfare committee as they were minors and IDs were openly circulated in social media.”

She also said, “We should nurture confidence at home as well as in college to make youths feel safe in their respective society. Even the institutions and colleges need to raise voices and respond to these issues.”

“We will have a discussion with home minister and if possible a delegation can be sent to home minister on the issue and ask him to visit to Dakshina Kannada and intervene the issue.”

“It would be better if we take out peace march involving students accompanied by their parents to police commissioner's office and end up the march by questioning the role of police on moral policing,” said Dinaker.

Roshni Staff Kishore, Karnataka Gadinaadu Rakshana Vedike member Siddique Talapady, students of Agnes, Aloysius, Roshni Nilaya were present.