Should ‘concerned citizens’ have the right to take the law into their own hands?
This question came up yet again in our ‘secular’ country when a new outfit called the Ram Sena decided to do exactly this in Mangalore. About 40 men from the outfit dragged out and beat up 5 women from a local nightspot, claiming that women going out at night and drinking was ‘against Hindu culture’.
The entire country and our (mostly overzealous) media were rightfully outraged and went lock, stock and barrel after the Ram Sena. Yesterday, the Ram Sena chief finally decided to apologize. Ram Muthalik, the president of the Sena, went on national TV and apologized to the country (and I believe to the families of the victims) for what had happened. However, the apology was not unconditional.
He accepted the fact that the way the ‘punishment’ was carried out was wrong and asked forgiveness. BUT he made clear that the underlying provocation for the attack was justified – that it was against ‘Hindutva’ for women to be behaving in this fashion. When asked by the TV anchor interviewing him what right the Ram Sena had to carry out this act (i.e. were they the police, military or government), the reply was that it was the right, no duty, of every concerned citizen to defend and uphold the culture of their country.
Of course, as with everything in India, there were a series of twists. That the attack was carried out, not by the Ram Sainiks, but by other groups to indirectly taint the BJP government in the state. That the pub at which the incident took place owed money to some people and that this was a way of enforcing the loan and many others like this.
The police, of course, was sleeping as usual.
