Ira Trivedi is an author and journalist based in New Delhi. She is the author of Nikhil and Riya and India in Love: Marriage and Sexuality in 21st century India. The opinions expressed in this commentary are hers.

(CNN) On New Years Eve, women were allegedly molested en masse by groups of men on the streets of Bangalore, a South India city famous for its software and tech industries -- India's answer to Silicon Valley.

Claims of this "mass molestation" came almost exactly four years after the tragic gang-rape of a young woman on a moving bus in New Delhi brought the issue of sexual violence and women's safety to the fore in India, and around the world.

Bangalore is one of India's most cosmopolitan cities, known for its diversity, scientific attitude and technical prowess. Young people from across India flock there for jobs.

The tech industry in particular has been known to be woman-friendly, with 30 per cent of its work force made up of women. That this sort of incident allegedly took place in the heart of Bangalore -- where 1500 police men were deployed to control revelers -- is not just a clear failure of governance, but also an indication that patriarchy still triumphs in a country n which complex cultural changes are underway.

This generational clash of tradition versus modernity is perhaps best explained by some of the political responses to this horrific incident. G. Parameshwara, the Home Minister of Karnataka -- the state in which Bangalore is in -- blamed the problem on young people who "try to copy westerners, not only in their mind-set but also in their dressing." The result, he said, was "some disturbance, some girls are harassed, these kinds of things do happen."

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