AIPWA condemns arrests of activists during Rahul Gandhi 's visit

Mangalore, Apr 5: All India Progressive Women 's Association (AIPWA) condemned the arrest of more than 100 people who had gathered in front of DC Office to hold a Black flag protest against moral policing in Mangalore.

In a press release, Gandhimathi, State Secretary of AIPWA said that even as public transport was not allowed within two km of the election meeting to be addressed by Congress Prince Rahul Gandhi and CM Siddharamaiah, the protestors reached the spot with difficulty, to express their anger and resentment against the apathy of Congress governments, both at the centre and state, to curb moral policing.

The protestors accused the police of dereliction of duty in arresting all the 30 culprits, belonging to the rightist outfit Hindu Jagarana Vedike, involved in the recent instance of molestation and attempt to strip a woman Corporator in public for canvassing for her party's Lok Sabha candidate. In this case, where a Congress Corporator was attacked, or in several other cases, the Congress, unlike the aggressive communal fascism of Sangh Parivar, has displayed soft communalism and failed to take any stringent measures against these hooligans, who go on a rampage attacking women and minorities in the name of protecting our culture, she said.

The UPA government at the centre, the Congress government in the state and the elected representatives of Mangalore have not shown any commitment or inclination to fight moral policing and have let down the aspirations of women, youth and minorities for freedom and democracy. The self-styled champions of our culture - Bajrang Dal, Sri Rama Sena, Hindu Jagarana Vedike and such communal outfits across religious , are unleashing terror in Mangalore and running a parallel goonda raj. While the police fail to arrest these law breakers and perpetrators of violence, they have arrested the peaceful protestors and thereby violated the democratic right of people to protest, she said.

AIPWA demanded tahat the state government to enact a stringent law against moral policing, order suo moto action by police in moral policing cases and immediately arrest all the accused in the Corporator 's case.