The fragile communal harmony in Mangaluru and surrounding areas has been ruptured once again even as less than a day is left for the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s (VHP) Virat Hindu Samajotsava in which about one lakh people are expected to participate on March 1.
A similar programme is planned in Udupi on March 9 in which VHP leader Praveen Togadia is expected to take part.
This is the sixth Samajotsava being held at the Nehru Maidan in Mangaluru and city-based social activist Vidya Dinker and film critic Ivan D’Silva point out that “whipping up hatred” is common in the run-up to the event. Communal attacks have occurred when people returned from such Samajotsavas.
The death of two Hindus in communal clashes in Shivamogga town, following a convention by Popular Front of India over a week ago, has added a new dimension to the whole issue forcing the police to further strengthen security for the event here.
Beginning with an altercation on February 17 in Moodushedde on the city’s outskirts that led to a clash to a series of shops being burnt down at Thokkottu in the early hours of Thursday, the city has witnessed at least eight cases of communal flare-up, in which at least six persons were injured.
While Police Commissioner S. Murugan maintained that some of these were stray incidents, he did not rule out that many could be linked to the March 1 event. Another police officer said that the hand of both the Hindutva and the Islamic forces could not be ruled out — both trying to further their own agenda.
Political Science Professor at Mangalore University Rajaram Tolpady sees a larger agenda of diverting the attention of people from issues that matter to them — the ordinance regarding land acquisition and the BJP’s embarrassing Delhi poll results — behind the very event and the other incidents here.
While he observes that efforts are on to entrench “constituencies such as Dalits”, Mr. D’Silva thinks that the Hindu community — deeply divided along Varnashrama lines — “has to be shown what to hate to ensure the divide within is forgotten”.
Vishwa Hindu Parishat leader M.B. Puranik said that efforts are being made to show Hindu organisations in poor light through such incidents.
“We are maintaining calm but there will be consequences (for those attempting this),” he cautioned. “It will be a peaceful event,” he said, blaming the media for highlighting certain incidents.
February 17 Altercation between a bus driver and motorcyclist from different communities leads to a clash, one person injured
February 21 A banner related to VHP’s Hindu Samajotsava is burnt at Jeppinamogaru
February 22 Two motorcyclists throw stones at a place of worship in Kulai; two held
February 22 A 20-year-old college student of a community beaten as he figured in a photograph wherein his classmate is seen on the lap of five girls from another community
February 24 Glass casing of a grotto of Our Lady of Mercy at a prayer hall damaged in Thokkottu
February 25 Two groups clash over placing a religious banner near Talapady (Kerala-Karnataka border)
February 26 A series of 20 shops set on fire in the early hours at Thokkottu
February 26 An arch of a temple set on fire and a shop nearby attacked
