Right-Wing Youth Arrested for Harassment and Communal Propaganda Against SFI Leaders in Karnataka

A 22-year old man has been arrested after being accused of harassing and threatening Madhuri and Hamza, leaders of the Students' Federation of India (SFI) in Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka.

Harish Devadiga alias Kakkinje Harish, from Belthangady in Dakshina Kannada district, was taken into custody after messages targeting Madhuri Bolar, the SFI Dakshina Kannada District Secretary, and Hamza Kinya, the SFI Dakshina Kannada District Joint Secretary were circulated on social media.

Right-wing vigilantes circulated WhatsApp messages about the two student leaders, "warning" Hamza Kinya against "roaming around on bike with our Hindu girls in broad daylight".

One of the WhatsApp messages being circulated contained a picture of Madhuri along with her friends including Hamza, with the text (in Kannada):

“Hamza Kinya is roaming around on bike with our Hindu girls in broad daylight… If he is further seen roaming around with Hindu girls, Hindu organisations must reply to him (act on him.)”

The picture was taken while Madhuri, a first year M.Com. student, was travelling in a bus to a camp along with fellow activists Hamza, Suhas Adiga and Ganesh Bolar. They had shared the picture on Facebook.

On 9 January, Madhuri met the Mangaluru City Police Commissioner TR Suresh at his office and filed a complaint with the cyber crime cell of the Mangaluru city police. She was accompanied by her mother Bharati Bolar, herself a member of the Beedi Workers Union affiliated to the CPI(M).

Harish was arrested from Pumpwell in Mangalore on Saturday, January 13 by the Mangaluru South police, and his mobile phone, which was used for the crime, was seized by the police.

Harish is allegedly an activist of the Bajrang Dal, which is the youth wing of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), and which forms part of the Sangh Parivar headed by the RSS.

Investigation is progressing and a few more could be arrested, according to the police.

Earlier this month, Dhanyashree, a young woman from Mudigere, Chikkamagaluru had committed suicide after a group of men harassed her for talking to a Muslim man. MV Anil, a BJP leader in Mudigere, was arrested for abetting her suicide.

Speaking to Newsclick, Madhuri Bolar said, "The Sangh Parivar is employing this type of tactics against many other young women. They think women can be silenced in this manner by attacking them and circulating screenshots and so on.”

“More young women should come forward courageously to reject the Sangh's diktats," Madhuri added.

Commenting on the episode, writer Chetana Tirthahalli told Newsclick that the ideology of the Sangh Parivar is based not only on hatred against Muslims, Christians and Communists, but also hatred against women. “They fear it when women stand up and speak,” she said.

“The Sangh Parivar projects women as the flag bearers of Hindu culture. They force their idea of sanatan dharma and so called sanskara on us and issues diktats to follow them. Their statements reek of misogyny.”

Madhuri condemned the Sangh Parivar’s attempt to sow discord among people belonging to diverse religious communities: “As office-bearers of SFI, we have to attend many programmes together and travel together. But this is not acceptable to the Sangh Parivar, which hates it when people from different religious communities come together and work together."

“The Sangh Parivar fears religious harmony. They are trying to destroy our unity by injecting the poison of communalism,” Chetana Tirthahalli added.