To the Chief Minister of Karnataka

Dear Chief Minister of Karnataka,

I am scared and worried writing this letter to you. I am worried that, after this letter is received, if I will be beaten up or harassed by the custodians of Hindu culture. I am worried if BJP/Shree Ram Sena/Bajrang Dal/MNS or any other "messengers" of god will harass me or my family.

But nevertheless, I will write believing Shakespeare who said " A coward dies many times before his death. The valiant never taste of death but once".

As a responsible citizen of India, I am disturbed by what has happened in Mangalore recently. I am horrified to see the violence on women who were peacefully having a good time. The so called custodians of Hindu culture not only proved they are uncultured rowdies, they also brought a despicable reputation to this country in front of the whole world showing how narrowminded they are. The world will think how narrow minded India is. Fortunately, Hindu religion has faced several brutalities throughout history and came out triumphant purely because of its all emcompassing kindness and love. I am proud to have embraced hinduism that teaches love and kindness. And these hoodlums cannot taint it.

But, as a responsible citizen and an incumbent of the government, it becomes your responsibility to ensure safety to your citizens and and deliver justice to the victims. You cannot wash your hands off by making token arrests. The onus is on your government to prove to your citizens that your government and your party are indeed different.

The hoodlums of Shree Ram Sena have broken the law and it becomes the responsibility of your government to ensure that they are quickly tried according to law book. If they had organizational support, it becomes your reponsibility to ensure that their organization is tried according to law book.

You may be happy that you came to power. Please do keep in mind that you did not come to power because it was your prerogative. It was because people were tired of hopelessness from the previous government. They wanted a change that would give them hope.

It is your actions that are going to define who you are , what your party is and what your government stands for. If no action is taken, it will be construed as pure incapability and connivance and people will be justified in considering BJP as nothing but a rowdy party. Even if BJP has nothing to do with Shree Ram Sena, if history is anything to believe in, then people are justified in associating any violence happening in the name of Shree Ram with BJP's role in it. And the onus is on your government to disprove it.

If you think you have done whatever is possible and give up without concretely ensuring that we bring closure on this issue, please be sure that people of this country will have no other option but to think that BJP is an endangered party and will ensure that they will never vote for BJP. That will have impact on the national scene as well. The whole country is watching. And Indians are not fools. As for me, I am pretty sure that I am never going to vote for the party, which, until a few years back was a refreshing change for me. And that is BJP. Just imagine how many like me you might be creating who are just fed up with narrowminded religious banality.

I will finish this note with a quote from Swami Vivekananda :

"All nations have attained greatness by paying proper respect to women. That country and that nation which do not respect women have never become great, nor will ever be in future."