"India is my country, all Indians are my brothers and sisters. I love my country and am proud of its rich culture and varied heritage...". These words have been chanted by most Indian students, often with reverence but shockingly today bears little to no significance. In an alarming new development, college students, especially Hindu women in Mangaluru beware of who you hangout with. A new ultimatum by a pro-Hindutva group based in Mangaluru has issued a threat warning "slaps" and beatings to women caught fraternising with men of other faiths. Yes, you heard that right.
Veera Kesari- a self-proclaimed messiah to all things Hindutva, has on Tuesday issued the warning to all Hindu girls from the Moodabidri area to refrain from fraternising with men of other faiths. What's worse is the ultimatum they brazenly issued with the threat- “Verbal lessons are over, warnings were also given, now is it (sic) time for a tight slap”.
“It has come to our notice that certain anti-religious activities have been going on and these are spoiling our culture. The reason for this is love jihad. If religious education is strong enough, such incidents will not happen. This is the last warning to all women in Moodabidri and surrounding areas. If there are people of other religions in your college and you interact with them, without listening to you, we will resort to mob justice and beat you up. There may be a hundred reasons but we won’t give any explanation,” the post on the group's Facebook page reads.
Posted 20 hours ago, it already has around 389 likes and 48 shares (currently). Followers have extended their support for the move with most comments reading "very good", "great move" and "all the best". The group has also said its activists will closely keep a watch over Hindu women in various colleges and resort to the fist or hand if the rules are broken. The threat is anything but light and two Hindu women were on Tuesday beaten up at a water park in broad daylight by members of a right-wing group. They were with two Muslim male companions and there is an alleged video of the vigilantes harassing the girls as police look on. The attackers had objected to the two women fraternising with men of other "religious communities".
“We have tried giving advice, we have tried to warn you (women). Those who are clever listen to words, those who are not clever enough will get beaten up. In the name of college photoshoots, a lot of girls are stepping out of college with men of other faiths. Our young men are there in every college to monitor your activities. Even if you go to another village to have fun with men of other religions, we will find you. If you (women) are with any Beary (Muslim) man, then you will receive more beatings than the man you are with,” the post reads.
This is one among a string of such incidents that have occurred here in the last month.
