'On a Wednesday afternoon, two of us women journalists with The Quint proceeded to Delhi University’s North Campus for a story on the ambiguity of sexual consent, and how sometimes ‘yes’ doesn’t mean yes. What we didn’t know was that it would land us up in a police thana. The story we were pursuing was for a campaign The Quint has spearheaded, called #MakeOutInIndia – an open celebration of sex and sexuality, without any euphemisms attached.
"Denying allegations that the Mangaluru City police were forced by right-wing activists to get women out of a party, the city police commissioner, S Murugan said that the organisers did not have the necessary liquor permission. According to a Hindustan Times report, Mangaluru police forced women dancing at a discothèque of a three-star hotel to leave on Saturday night, allegedly at the behest of the Bajrang Dal.
"Six years after that infamous battering of a group of girls inside a Mangaluru pub, cultural vigilantism is no more the preserve of a few lumpens. The inclination appears to have seeped into the very fabric of Karnataka's coastal society, with even young college students — often its victims — now donning the mantle of the moral police. A boy and a girl belonging to different religious communities were suspended by the government PU College in Sullia, around 70 km from Mangaluru, last month after sparking protests on campus. Their fault: they were seen together at a cyber cafe.
"Last week, co-convenor of the Bajrang Dal’s (BD’s) Bantwal cell, Bhuvith Shetty, triggered a controversy by welcoming the assassination of scholar M.M. Kalburgi. Thirty years after its creation, the BD has enlarged its agenda in such a manner that the rule of law is at stake. The BD was founded in 1984 under the auspices of the VHP to increase Hindu mobilisation for the Ayodhya movement. While the first leader of the BD, Vinay Katiyar, was a former RSS pracharak, the organisation lacked the disciplinary regimen of the RSS. Up until 1993, the BD did not even have a uniform.
"In a bizarre move, the administration of a private degree college in Dakshina Kannada, has suspended two female students, after their two year old photos with liquor bottles and cigarettes went viral on WhastApp. girlsThe victims are students of second year Bachelor of Business Management (BBM) at a degree college in Kukke Subhrahmanya on the outskirts of the city. The suspension comes after the students belonging to local unit of ABVP brought the issue to the notice of the college authorities and pressed for action against the 'immoral activities' of the girls in question.
"The Mumbai Police on Sunday have rounded up 13 couples and 35 others following raids at hotels and a beach here for indecent behaviour in public, provoking a storm in the social media which asked why consenting adults cannot stay together. Consenting adults who checked into several hotels in Madh Island and Aksa area were in for a shock when they found policemen knocking on the doors of their rooms and rounding them up.
"It started as a quiet, almost innocuous government order, which was also surprisingly precise. Last week, India's telecoms ministry ordered internet service providers to block access to 857 websites hosting pornographic content. But not even the government could have predicted the scale and level of outrage that the order unleashed as Indians heaped criticism and scorn on the move. A week later, it's seemingly scaled down the directive.
'Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) wants white water rafting in the Ganga, one of Uttarakhand's most popular sporting activities, banned as it gives rise to "obscene activities" on riverbanks. On the concluding day of a two-day meeting of its national advisory board in Haridwar on Tuesday, the VHP leaders said the adventure sport also "led to many illegal activities" in the holy town of Rishikesh.
'Attributing the surge in crimes, especially against women, to consumption of alcohol, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) wants a ban on bars and sale of liquor. It also views bars and pubs wooing women with freebies like ladies’ nights and free drinks encourage alcohol consumption. The right-wing organisation is also unhappy with the Maharashtra government’s proposal to implement a night life plan for Mumbai, which would allow bars and restaurants to remain open 24x7, saying it could worsen the crime rate in the city.
'The courts will work their processes in the ‘AIB Roast’ case, but it is very rarely illegal to tell a joke, or a whole series of them, to listen to one, disseminate or laugh at one. The law does not criminalise a joke. The law cannot allow itself to be used as an instrument of suppression, of a citizen’s right to speak sense or nonsense...
