Who is Pramod Mutalik?

 Pramod Mutalik may have become a Muslim household name with his provocative statement, “Malegaon is a Jhalak. More is possible if every woman picks up bombs”, but he was in the news much before Sadhvi Pragya. In the second half of 2008, the same Mutalik, a vendor of anarchy, had said in a press conference held in Bangalore press club that Hindu suicide squads are ready “to take on Islamic terrorists.”

This news item remained on the fringe and nobody bothered to pick it up since Mutalik posed a threat only to the Indian Muslims. He became a despicable object only when his men attacked ‘Hindu’ women in a pub in Mangalore.

Sadhvi Rithambara, Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur and Pramod Mutalik once belonged to BJP whose unofficial doctrine is based on the hate culture. It is altogether a different matter that when the hate crosses the permissible limit, BJP tries to distance itself from its ardent supporters.

From Mubasshir Mushtaq's article in Inquilab

To read the full article, click here.

What does it take to stoke a riot in Bangalore? Not a lot, for if you are willing to spend then Pramod Muthalik’s Sri Ram Sene will do the job.

This was the essence of the six-weeks long joint investigation by the news channel, Headlines Today, and Tehelka magazine, which was aired on Thursday.

Muthalik — whose claim to notoriety is the Mangalore pub attack of 2009 — has been caught on a hidden camera saying that a communal riot can be ‘organised’ in Bangalore or Mangalore. “Mangalore main kar sakte hain...Bangalore.” 

The sting’s script was simple: A reporter posed as an artist hungry for fame and wanted a communal riot sparked off by his exhibition so that he could be ‘famous like M F Hussain’; Muthalik said it could be organised and directed the artist to meet his deputies.

What followed was a series of meetings, primarily, with Prasad Attavur, national vicepresident, Sri Ram Sene and Vasantkumar Bhavani, Bangalore head of the Sene.Three out of four conversations with Attavur were held inside a jail. Muthalik is also shown accepting a donation of Rs 10,000 from a painter for “the cause of Hindutva”.
From Express News Service's report in Expressbuzz
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'Sri Ram Sene-like elements are there within the Congress and the CPM too', says Ramachandra Guha

Tehelka's extraordinary exposé of the Sri Ram Sene demonstrates how 'popular and religious sentiment' is cynically manufactured -- for a price. It should lead to serious introspection among all our political parties, who -- as the cases of Salman Rushdie, MF Husain, Taslima Nasreen and James Laine all show -- have so often stifled or suppressed artistic freedom in the name of protecting this alleged sentiment. 

The Tehelka exposé should provoke not self-satisfaction but shame, for there are Sri Ram Sene-like elements within the Congress, the CPM, and the BJP as well. 

Ramachandra Guha's reaction to the Tehelka expose on Shri Rama Sene

I would like to congratulate Tehelka for a brilliant exposé on the ugly face of fundamentalism in India. People like Pramod Muthalik and organisations like the Sri Ram Sene are a threat to India and strict legal action should be taken against them based on what they have said in the tapes. 

Everyone has a right to follow one's religion, but no one has the right to instigate the public and create communal tension in the name of religion. This is precisely what the Sene and the other parties like the RSS are doing. 

Also, the onus should not be on the Sri Ram Sene as much as it should be on the BJP and the VHP. Muthalik is just an off-shoot of the fundamentalist agenda of the VHP and the RSS, which receive patronage from the BJP. 

The exposé has brought into public conscience what these parties can do to spread communal tension in the country.

Sanjay Nirupam's reaction to the Tehelka expose on Pramod Mutalik and Shri Rama Sene

To read the reaction of H D Deve Gowda, Digvijay Singh and others click here.

Pramod Mutalik and his Shri Ram Sena exposed

Bangaru Lakshman a senior most leader of BJP famously asked the tehelka team, 'Give me in dollors..!'. Another stalwart quipped in camera, 'Paisa khuda nahin..! par khuda ki qasam, khuda se kam nahin..!' (Money is not God. But, by God, money is not lesser than God). And when the petrol bunk scam hit the headlines, The Hindu, the national newspaper of India, described the benefeciaries of the scam as 'it looks like the laundry list of the Sangh Parivar'. We could understand the majboori - nirbandam - compulsion of Bangarus and others. Atleast they didn't intend to harm others.

But what Pramod Mutalik, the Shri Ram Sena chief and veteran leader of Hindutva had done in Karnataka is simply mind baffling. One could say it as the mother of all the crimes of the Hindutva brigade. It is shocking to note that for a few thousand rupees one could indulge in arson, looting etc. We heard that people indulged in murder, looting etc for a five hundred rupee note and a bottle of beer in Gujarat during the notorious Gujarat Genocide 2002. One could pity on them, as they were downtrodden and desperate lot. But, Muthalik looks like a well fed, well bred, well dressed, well educated - a no nonsense man.

It seems that you have a price for everything in this country. And the sadder fact is that there is no value for anything in this land. Inspite of their nuisance value, the Hindutva brigade had certain values closer to their chest. They were perceived to be the party with a difference. But, power has corrupted them. What they really want is money..!Given below are the excerpts from the Tehelka expose:

There are 133 videos that show up on YouTube when you search for “Mangalore pub attack”. Over 300,000 people have viewed the first video. Put in the same query on Google and 69,000 websites show up in a fraction of a second. On 24 January 2009, a group of 35-40 men barged into a pub in Mangalore and attacked young women as they enjoyed an afternoon drink. Amongst the attackers were members of Sri Ram Sene — a right-wing organisation that was relatively unknown at the time. The Sene cadres considered women drinking publicly as “indecent behaviour” and more importantly “an insult to Hindu culture and tradition”. Two days after the attack, as India marked 60 years of the Constitution coming into force, national television channels looped footage of women being slapped, beaten and chased out of the pub. (In a telling detail, the footage of the assault was available only because the Sene had informed journalists and photographers in Mangalore of their intended attack 30 minutes before they entered the pub.) The footage sparked outrage. News producers from French, Russian, German television channels despatched correspondents to ground zero. Even producers from The Oprah Winfrey Show called in asking for the footage. The Sene had burst onto the scene.

As an organisation, the Sene has always claimed for itself a radical Hindu identity. Its leaders position themselves as zealous custodians of “Hindu religion” and “culture”, its cadres as valiant foot soldiers. In their own words, they will not hesitate to assault people, vandalise property, destroy artistic expressions, separate mixed religion couples — in general, interfere violently — to implement their hardline Hindutva agenda. Their professional calling card is violence justified by a puritanical, spitfire morality.

A six-week undercover investigation by TEHELKA, however, reveals that even this violent, spitfire morality can be a hypocritical sham. Sri Ram Sene members are not just committed ideologues who are spontaneously willing to become violent law-breakers for a “cause”. That’s just one of their criminal and negative faces. They are also cynical lumpen that can be bought for a price. “Contract rioting” — thugs being handed out contracts or money to create riots — no longer needs to be a matter of mere speculation. TEHELKA’s investigation shows it is an alarming reality. Vandalism can be purchased; ‘cultural nationalism’ can go on sale. It’s all kosher in the “business” of outrage. More:

Tehelka: I’ll take leave sir, what I want is to gain popularity and if I get popularity my business will improve. If you say then I…just tell me a time limit… these many boys will be there…this much for advo…meaning that of lawyers…we will not even complain… because that is our understanding… but sir, it is that whatever you say that amount of advance I will leave with you, then I say to you that now it has all come to you, and sir now do the job…
Pramod Mutalik: Can do it in Mangalore, Bangalore…
Tehelka: I can get more popularity in the Shivaji Nagar area of Bangalore… because that whole area is theirs…the Muslims. If you give one statement in the press and 10 of your workers reach there…we will shut it down…what is it to us? But at least we will get popularity.
Pramod Mutalik: Yes, that can be done…
Tehelka: So sir, just tell me straight up…or tell me to come after two or four days…. tell me for certain that ‘This is my expense… you do this much…’ so sir, I’ll complete it and plan it all out…
Pramod Mutalik: What I’m telling you, our president there…
Tehelka: …of Bangalore?
Pramod Mutalik: Of Bangalore…he is also very strong…on speaking to him…all three of us—you, me and him—will sit and plan out what is to be done…then we will do it…definitely do it.”

From An expose by Push Sharma written by Sanjana additional reporting by K Ashish in Tehelka

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Cartoon : courtesy Prasad Radhakrishnan/ Mail Today