Images of kanwariyas vandalising cars in North India turn up with disturbing frequency around this time of the year, it is actually a picture of India the BJP has created where goondaism is synonymous with 'religiosity'. People in Delhi, Haryana, Uttarakhand and UP have been suffering these insidious kawad yatras for decades. These lowlife thugs block arterial highways, harass road users by needlessly picking up fights, beat up restaurant owners for using onion and garlic in their dishes, play earsplitting music in their DJ vans bedecked with blinding strobe lights, defecate in the open, destroy public property and vehicles using hockey sticks and baseball bats (imagine, these guys are supposed to be devotees of Lord Shiva) and are a nuisance all-round. The hooliganism and state patronage of these kanwariyas has increased with each passing year and the government deliberately pampers them to divert their attention from their woeful plight. Public resources and taxpayers' monies are criminally wasted on these rowdies, this has to stop ; the government can not sponsor such malfeasance, the genie has to be put back in the bottle and corked.
