Moral Police: Attack part of BJP’s hidden agenda: JD(S)

Mangalore Today News Network

Udupi, July 31, 2012: Deviprasad Shetty, president of the district unit of Janata Dal (Secular), said on Monday that the attack on young men and women at a homestay in Mangalore allegedly by Hindu Jagarana Vedike had exposed the double standards of the Sangh Parivar outfits.

Addressing presspersons here, Mr. Shetty said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Government promoted a “rave party” in the name of a music festival on St. Mary’s Island near Malpe a few months ago. Images of the “rave party” were telecast on television channels. But the Sangh Parivar was silent on the issue. None of its affiliate organisations dared to raid the “rave party”. An influential Mangalore-based RSS leader had forced the Deputy Commissioner of Udupi district to permit the “rave party” on St. Mary’s Island, he said.

‘Job of the police’

If there were any illegal activities going on in resorts or homestays, it was the job of the Police Department to stop it and vigilante groups did not have any right to intervene in the name of protecting Hindu culture, he said.

Mr. Shetty said that it was the BJP Government which had given permission for pubs, normal bars and hookah bars to function. The vigilante groups were running extortion rackets in the name of protecting Hindu religion.

The attack on the homestay in Mangalore was part of the hidden agenda of the BJP. Since the party was losing ground in coastal districts, the attack on the homestay was a ploy to polarise people, he said.

Reacting to vedike leader Jagadish Karanth’s statement that their members were not involved in the attack, Mr. Shetty said the leader’s stand showed how the organisation brainwashed the youth and left them to rot in jail after accomplishing their task..

Janata Dal (S) leaders Shalini Shetty, Jayakumar Parkala, Vedavati Hegde, Padmanabh Kotian and Pradeep were present.

‘BJP is losing ground and the attack is a ploy to polarise people’

Courtesy: The Hindu