The other day on Kannada Rajyothsava, a bunch of random guys on bikes came shouting down our street. Seated three on a bike and carrying the yellow and red flags, shouting and generally creating nuisance. They soon moved on to the nearby ring road. Even if their activities got violent (don’t think it did) the police wouldn’t have been able to do a thing since the hooligans were “celebrating suvarna karnataka” and any action against them would be seen as being anti-Kannada!
suppose a group of hooligans, claiming to be hindu nationalists, goes and burns a church. the BJP and other likeminded forces are forced not to disassociate from them – for that would be seen as dissociating themselves from hindutva!
there were huge riots all over bangalore the day after Rajkumar died. No one could do a thing – “this is all in mourning” they said.
so my dear rioters, all you need to do to escape the law and gain support is to be vocal and identify yourself with some “noble” cause – be it language or religion or trade unionism or the poor or whatever. i can assure you you won’t be punished.