RSS is responsible for all these attacks: Gowri Lankesh

RSS is responsible for all these attacks: Gowri Lankesh

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, Aug 4, 2012: RSS is responsible for all these attacks said Gowri Lankesh in a protest rally organized by the Karnataka Komu Souharda Vedike (KKSV)  in front of the DC’s office on August 4, Saturday. The procession began at Jyothi Circle and ended at the DC’s office. 

KKSV Secretary K. L. Ashok said that the RSS are the main culprits and RSS leaders such as Jagadish Karanth and Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat must be first arrested. He challenged the police to arrest RSS leaders who engineer such attacks in the city instead of filing cases against media persons. Urging Sangh Parivar activists to remember that they are being used by these leaders, he said that these leaders will not come to their rescue if they are arrested. Although there is enough evidence that Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat is spreading communal hatred, he has still not been arrested, he added.

Attacking the Sangh Parivar for opposing the burkha, while simultaneously complaining of westernization, he said that saffron outfits have no right to set dress codes for Indian citizens. Attacking Pejawar Seer and other leaders who criticized girls for wearing western clothes and taking part in parties, he said that these people are talking RSS language.

Speaking on the occasion, journalist Gowri Lankesh said that the Indian Constitution is above religion. Stating that the RSS is responsible for all these attacks, she said that pro Hindu outfits such as VHP, HJV, Bajrang Dal, and others are all branches of the RSS. Calling the RSS anti-woman, she said that RSS is directly responsible for creating tense atmosphere in the country.

Columnist Jyothi Guruprasad demanded to know why the HJV was quiet with regard to the Halappa, Padmapriya, and Renukacharya cases.

Progressive thinker Sabiha Bhoomigowda said that, instead of addressing the issue of assault on the students, C. Manjula of the Karnataka Women’s Commission tried to divert the issue by bringing up the legality of the home stay and the character of the victims and their parents.

Demanding that the HJV must be banned, former minister B. T. Lalitha Nayak said that citizens have the right to live their lives as they wish and, if they break the law, the police department has to deal with it, not members of a religious outfit.

Suresh Bhat Bakrabail, president of KKSV, said that repeated attacks prove that the district administration is unable to stop the illegal activities of pro-Hindu outfits.

Expressing her anger against TV channels that repeatedly showed video footages of the female victims being molested and assaulted by the mob, women’s rights activist Kamala Gowda said that these girls have to think about their future and the media has no right to harass them by repeatedly telecasting the home stay attack.

The protestors urged the police department to release details of the men who molested and beat up the girls so that media could broadcast it.

Several organizations such as DK District Women’s Forum, Mangalore Citizens’ Association, Diocese Council of Christian Women, National Women’s Front, Popular Front of India, AHINDA, Catholic Sabha, Karnataka Rajya Dalita Sangharsha Samithi, Karnataka Missions Network, PUCL, National Confederation of Human Rights Organizations, Mangalore Central Committee, and others took part in the protest.