Network of informers fuels moral policing in Karnataka

A senior officer, who was earlier posted in coastal Karnataka and now posted in Bengaluru, said that mobile numbers of the right-wing groups are easily available.

A group of men charged towards a couple sitting in Mudipu on the outskirts of Mangaluru on February 3. The men belonging to Hindu Jagran Vedike threw a barrage of questions at them asking for their identity cards. The one thing they wanted to know was the couple’s religion.

A group of men charged towards a couple sitting in Mudipu on the outskirts of Mangaluru on February 3. (PTI)

They began heckling the couple after they learned that the boy was a Muslim and the girl was a Hindu. Even though the couple fought back but the mob attacked them with helmets and handed them over to the police. The police eventually released them.

It was later found that a local shopkeeper had given the right-wing mob the tip-off about the couple.

Karnataka chief minister’s recent statements that appeared to justify incidents of moral policing had kicked off a controversy. On October 13, CM Basavaraj Bommai had said, “Youngsters should watch their actions to ensure it does not hurt sentiments of the society.”

“There are several sentiments in the society. Those emotions should not be affected, and such should be the behaviour. When such emotions are hurt, there is likely to be an action and reaction,” Bommai told reporters in Mangaluru, about 350 km from Bengaluru.

Reacting to the CM’s remark, a statement endorsed by 35 human rights activists and organizations stated that the justification of moral policing by the chief minister sends out a “dangerous message”.

The police in coastal districts say they are often caught between the right-wing groups and the activists. The shopkeeper who tipped off the couple on Mudipu is part of a larger network of informants, which police admit is often stronger than that of the police department.

A senior officer, who was earlier posted in coastal Karnataka and now posted in Bengaluru, said that mobile numbers of the right-wing groups are easily available. “It often takes hours before the police get to know about any incident. But during this time, these groups mobilize, attack, and in some cases leave before the police arrive. Nowadays, they don’t leave, but they wait till the police come,” said the officer.

He added that the communal divide in coastal Karnataka has been fueling this network. From autorickshaw drivers to shopkeepers to schoolteachers, these informants are everywhere. “The best way to explain it is that the entire Mangaluru city is under a contact watch by these men. If they see any couples or a group of students, the information is passed on. There have been many cases where Hindu couples were heckled, but only (cases involving) interfaith couples get reported,” he added.

As per records of Karnataka Communal Harmony, a Mangaluru-based organization that focuses on communal violence in the region, there have been 1,288 instances of communal violence including moral policing, cattle vigilantism, and hate speech since 2010. Among these, at least 322 instances of moral policing by vigilantes.

“Interfaith couples are always attacked by a group of people and never an individual. They are forced to call their parents and their videos are recorded. After these attacks, messages announcing a raid are sent out of social media. All the attacks are well-coordinated.”

Informants spread across the city provide tip-offs on interfaith couples and their movements. “Hindu right-wing groups also have a strong following among auto-rickshaw drivers and employees of private bus operators in the city. They don’t do it for monetary reasons, but they believe in concepts like love jihad,” said Vidya Dinkar, a Mangaluru-based activist.

Dinker claims that even though police claim they are unable to stop these attacks, there have been instances of the police telling couples from different communities not to be seen in public together. “The sense of flawed morality and communalism remains within the police department itself. This is one of the reasons why many don’t file a police complaint. But the recent case (attack on Thursday) the girl stood her ground to get the complaint,” she said.

Another group of informants is employees of security agencies (private security guards) across the city, some of whom are members of right-wing parties. An activist in the city, who didn’t want to be named, said that a security agency, Eshwari Manpower Solutions, which provides security to prominent commercial establishments in the city including malls, is run by a leader of the Bajarang Dal, Sharan Pumpwell.

“Once Pumpwell’s firm is in charge of the establishment, there will not be an attack on the mall, like the pub attack that happened years ago. So, the fear created using these attacks is used to get business as well,” alleged the activist.

Pumpwell said that his business and politics are separate from each other. Talking about the instances of moral policing involving his group’s members, Pumpwell said: “We are only protecting our sisters from those who are trying to convert them in the name of love. You must have heard about how girls are sent to ISIS. We don’t want it to happen here. We don’t take the law into our hands. We simply hand them over (to the police); it is the police’s job to investigate.”