Mangalore pub’s licence should be cancelled: NCW

July 18th, 2009 MANGALORE - Indian Coast Guard rescued 18 crew members of a China bound ship off Mangalore on Friday. The cargo ship, 'Asian Forest', carrying 13,600 tons of iron ore, lay tilted 20 degrees about 15 nautical miles in the Arabian Sea soon after it had left Mangalore port.

March 1st, 2009 BANGALORE - Bharatiya Janata Party leader L.K. Advani Saturday blasted the rightwing Hindu group Sri Rama Sene for its attack on women in a Mangalore pub last month, saying such 'barbaric attacks are condemnable'.

February 28th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Women and Child Development Minister Renuka Chowdhury Friday sacked National Commission for Women (NCW) member Nirmala Vankatesh who probed the pub attack on women in Mangalore, saying her conduct was detrimental to public interest. In a notification issued by the ministry, Chowdhury said Vankatesh was sent to Mangalore to probe the assault on women in a pub by the Hindu outfit Sri Rama Sene, but she went public and 'acted in a way which was detrimental to public interest'.

February 28th, 2009 BANGALORE - Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani Saturday condemned the attack on young women in a Mangalore pub by members of a rightwing Hindu group as a violation of Indian culture.

February 11th, 2009 BANGALORE - Controversy surrounds the alleged suicide of a 16-year-old school girl in Mangalore Wednesday. Did she kill herself after being allegedly raped by a Muslim man she knew, as per the police version, or did she take the extreme step because she was humiliated by members of a rightwing Hindu group for moving around with two Muslim men? The girl committed suicide near Moodabidri, around 40 km from Mangalore, Wednesday.

February 11th, 2009 BANGALORE - Controversy surrounds the alleged suicide of a 16-year-old school girl in Mangalore Wednesday. Did she kill herself after being allegedly raped by a Muslim man she knew, as per the police version, or did she take the extreme step because she was humiliated by members of a rightwing Hindu group for moving around with two Muslim men? The girl committed suicide near Moodabidri, around 40 km from Mangalore, Wednesday.

February 9th, 2009 MANGALORE - More than two weeks after a group of self-styled moralists attacked young women in a pub here, people in this Karnataka town are still seething. From housewives to businessmen to community leaders, including those who look down upon the pub culture, there is unanimity that the Sri Ram Sene, a right-wing Hindu nationalist fringe group, had no business to take the law into its hands.

February 5th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The National Commission for Women (NCW) Friday rejected its member Nirmala Venkatesh's report that blamed the Jan 24 attack on women in a Mangalore pub on the security of the establishment. NCW chairperson Girija Vyas said the report lacked on three counts - no social activists or local advocates were included in the committee, none of the persons attacked were contacted or interviewed, it focussed on the licence issued to the bar owners that was not part of the probe - and was thus not acceptable.

February 4th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The ministry of women and child development, headed by Renuka Chowdhury, Thursday evening issued a show-cause notice to National Commission for Women (NCW) member Nirmala Venkatesh, who probed the pub attack on women in Mangalore, for her 'unbecoming' action and 'dereliction of duty'. 'Your acts are unbecoming of a member of the National Commission for Women.

February 2nd, 2009 NEW DELHI - Women and Child Development Minister Renuka Chowdhury Tuesday said elements like those who attacked women in a Mangalore pub were 'threat to national security'. Chowdhury also lashed out at the Karnataka government over the attack by a self-styled moral brigade on some women in the pub, as a two-member team from her ministry, which conducted the probe into the incident, submitted its report Tuesday.

January 31st, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Women and Child Development (WCD) Minister Renuka Chowdhury has sent a two-member team to conduct an independent probe into the attack last month on women in a Manglore pub, an official said here Sunday. Around 40 members of Sri Rama Sene (army of god Rama) barged into a Mangalore pub 'Amnesia' Jan 24 and bashed up several young men and women in the name of moral policing.

January 30th, 2009 BANGALORE - Sri Rama Sene president Pramod Muthalik and 27 Sene activists arrested for last week's attack on women in a Mangalore pub were released on bail Saturday. A Mangalore court granted them bail with conditions including one that says they should report to the Mangalore North police station once a fortnight.

January 29th, 2009 BANGALORE - The daughter might have differed with her father, but Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa's party colleagues seem to toe his line as far as disallowing 'pub culture' in the state is concerned.

January 28th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Hindutva activists' attack on women in a pub in Mangalore in south India last week caught international attention with a leading US paper voicing fears of the rise of a 'Hindu Taliban'. In a front page report, titled 'Fears of a Hindu Taliban', the Los Angeles Times has noted that 'the attack by Hindu extremists who say they are protecting traditional Indian culture shows a disconnect as some classes rapidly Westernize.

December 28th, 2008 NEW DELHI - The capital and areas around may fall short of venues to welcome the new year as hotels and pubs that have not paid music licence fees will not be allowed play music at their year-end bashes. Phonographic Performance Ltd (PPL), the apex-licensing arm of the Indian music industry, has served notices to several leading hotels and pubs that have defaulted on paying licence fees, saying action would be taken against them if they did not pay up.