Pramod Muthalik? Red faced?
Yes, a sting did achieve what the Pink Chaddis and the Black Paint could not.
Read the exposé by Pushp Sharma in Tehelka:
Sri Ram Sene members ... 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.
To expose this aspect of the Sri Ram Sene, a TEHELKA journalist posing as an artist met Pramod Muthalik, the president of the Sri Ram Sene, with a proposal. Using the rationale that all controversy is good publicity, he asked Muthalik if the Sri Ram Sene would orchestrate a pre-paid, pre-meditated attack on his painting exhibition so that the resulting furore would spark public interest, catapult him to fame and help sell his paintings both in India and abroad by attracting higher bids at art auctions. (Never mind that the supposed paintings this furore might help sell evoked Hindu- Muslim amity, particularly Hindu-Muslim marriages — a phenomenon the Sene abhors.) In return, Muthalik and the Sene would regain the national stature they had achieved during the Mangalore pub attack, besides pocketing the agreed upon fee. Far from rejecting this proposal with horror and outrage, Muthalik readily connected the TEHELKA reporter to one Sene member after another — down a food chain that exposed a disturbingly entrenched criminal mindset, which is confident of fixing the system to abet it.
2 Comments:
Hi abi,
Does this guy have anything amounting to a reputation, that needed to be taken down? did he really need to be shown up as uncommitted to whateveratva it was... anybody ever buy that?
In revealing the rent-a-riot nature of this gang, it turns out possible that it could be anybody that could have hired them ... whether for this attack or Mangalore pub.
The BJP as the govt in power had some incentive *not to* have that happen -and I guess they have enough others in the 'parivar' that could be counted on to do it if they wanted.
It now seems likelier that somebody else arranged for the pub attack to happen.
This story appears to *unstick* some mud from the BJP and their ideology.
rgds,
Jai
@Jai: Whether Muthalik has a BJP connection is immaterial here. Given the media's enthusiasm for showcasing -- and helping mainstream -- his terror tactics (which are projected as political acts), the rent-a-riot nature of his operation needed to be outed.
But read the article (also) for how the reporters managed to meet one of Muthalik's deputies in jail. That's equally explosive!
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