Mid Day
Date: 2009-02-09
Minister targets academic
by S R Ramakrishna
MANGALORE:
Pattabhirama Somayaji, who teaches English at College of Mangalore University, spoke out against the mob violence at Amnesia. The saffron brigade is now out to get him out of his job
Stifled: Pattabhirama Somayaji, professor, Mangalore University
Students led by a minister are pressuring Mangalore University to suspend a Hindu professor for "insulting Hinduism", but many on the campus believe his voice is being stifled because he speaks up for minority rights.
The principal has served a notice on Pattabhirama Somayaji, who teaches English to undergraduate students at University College of Mangalore, to explain whether he insulted Hinduism when a TV channel sought his opinion on the January 24 pub attack.
Somayaji will most likely send his reply today. His colleagues, many of whom stand by him but are unwilling to speak on record, are hopeful the academic establishment will not give in to the political arm-twisting.
Some time ago, an ABVP leader had urged the principal to ban Muslim girls from wearing burqas to college.
Somayaji was among those who dissented.
"Many girls come from very poor backgrounds," Somayaji told MiD DAY. "Their parents wouldn't let them study if they didn't wear veils."
Somayaji has been outspoken in his criticism of Sri Rama Sene's attack on Amnesia, and that hasn't gone down well with that group's sympathisers on the campus. The ABVP, affiliated to the Sangh Parivar, enjoys the support of some students.
Sadiq, who studies business management at the same college, said, "This has been going on for a long time...
They have now found some excuse to get at Sir."
The ostensible provocation for the notice was what Somayaji told NDTV after the pub attack in Mangalore.
'We stopped matka gambling'
On the night of the attack, one of the victims came on TV with her face covered and said she wouldn't stop going to pubs, but prepare to defend herself should there be another attack.
Her parents reportedly received threat calls that night, and they requested the channel not to air the interview as scheduled the following morning.
"Parents of the girl told us we had done a good thing," said Arun Kumar Puthila, convenor of Sri Rama Sene's south Karnataka province.
He told MiD DAY his group was a moral force, and had actually pressured the government into putting an end to vices such as matka gambling.
The assaulted girls have stopped talking to the media since the night of the pub attack. "We know them. They are Mangalore girls," said Puthila.
'Hindu vigilants waking up now'
He condemned the assailants during a panel discussion, and a day later, NDTV reporter Vasanthi Hariprakash visited his college and collected more sound bytes from him.
Not many were around when she interviewed him, but some students complained to the principal that he had said derogatory things about Hinduism. The interview has yet to be aired.
The same group of students forced the college to close for a day, and brought district-in-charge minister Krishna Palemar to their principal to press their case for Somayaji's suspension.
Out of reach
MiD DAY tried for two days to get in touch with Palemar, but he wouldn't receive calls.
Minister for higher education Visweswara Hegde Kageri has also visited the college in connection with this row.
Late alarm
Somayaji, like many in Mangalore, is surprised the national media did not report the many cases of assault and vandalism by Hindu vigilantes, and is waking up to the problem only after seeing footage of the pub attack.
"Some time ago, these men beat up some Muslim boys and Hindu girls who had gone to an ice-cream parlour... and then handed them over the police," he said.
In such cases, the zealots and the police have 'counselled' the girls and sent them home, but kept the boys back and beaten them. In more recent cases, Sene members have roughed up the girls as well.
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