BJP condemns Mangalore incident, says Sangh not involved

Distancing itself from the attack on women by some Hindu outfit activists in a Mangalore pub, BJP insisted that Sangh Parivar was not involved in the "condemnable" incident.

Distancing itself from the attack on women by some Hindu outfit activists in a Mangalore pub, BJP on Monday insisted that Sangh Parivar was not involved in the "condemnable" incident and said those responsible for the "hooliganism" should be brought to justice.

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BJP President Rajnath Singh said he would visit Bangalore to discuss the incident with Chief Minister Y S Yeddyurappa even as the party insisted that the Karnataka government was taking "appropriate action" in the matter.

"The act is condemnable and whoever is responsible should be booked and justice delivered," Singh told reporters here about the incident in which some Hindu group activists acted as 'moral police' and thrashed women in a pub in Mangalore.

BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad said, "the culprits are neither from the BJP nor from the Sangh Parivar. They are from an autonomous organisation" active in the area.

"We condemn this hooliganism," Prasad told PTI, adding such acts have "no place in a civil society".

He said the state government is taking appropriate action in the case and 13 people have already been arrested.

Some sections have sought to link the Sangh Parivar to the incident in which more than a dozen men, calling themselves members of Ram Sena Samiti, barged into a local pub in Mangalore Saturday night and beat up women guests stating they were going against Indian culture and tradition.

BJP said some people and parties were trying to make political capital out of the issue.

"I have a little problem with those who seek to make political capital out of it. There are so many cases of serious violence and riots in Delhi where women were raped. Has the National Commission for Women gone to the victims of police atrocities on women in Delhi?" Prasad asked.