Pink brigade on V-Day roll - Rush to embarrass Ram sena empties shelves

The V-Day panties on sale at a Chennai shop

New Delhi/Chennai, Feb. 10: A pink slip may now be easier to get than a pink chaddi.

Rose-coloured or lavender, plain or patterned, the undergarments are flying off the racks at roadside stalls and into the shopping bags of college girls and working women who’ll never wear them.

The campaign to make Ram Sena chief Pramod Mutalik, whose men attacked women at a Mangalore pub, turn pink with embarrassment has taken off with gusto, from Delhi and Mumbai to Bangalore and Chennai.

Come Valentine’s Day and thousands of pink panties will rain on Mutalik, sent by women who believe it’s the “most peaceful and creative way to insult the Sena”, going by the posts on the Facebook group, A Consortium of Pub going, Loose and Forward Women.

Delhiite Nisha Susan had started the campaign on February 5 but the buying spree kicked off only yesterday. Student Nisha Dhavan returned disappointed from Mumbai’s Linking Road shopping district this morning.

“I didn’t get any I liked,” she rued. “One shopkeeper said he had already sold 150 pieces, priced between Rs 20 and Rs 35, today. I’ll try out the other markets.”

It’s the same at Delhi’s Sarojini Nagar and Janpath. “A woman called me to say she had bought 100 pink chaddis,” Susan said.

“I have bought the ugliest, most horrendous pink thongs. With tiger print patterns and sequins,” wrote Sameera Soon, one of the campaign’s 7,000 registered members, on the website.

The likes of Marks and Spencer or Lovable haven’t gained but street vendors are grinning.

“I don’t want to spend money on the chaddis, I’ll buy them from the street. They (the Sena) don’t deserve branded stuff,” said Jeny, 23, who has volunteered to be a “collector” for Chennai.

The campaign has collectors in every city whom buyers can send their consignments, to be couriered in a lot to Mutalik.

Not everybody is sending new panties. “A friend’s mom said she was checking out her wardrobe,” Susan said.

Men are chipping in too. “I got many multicolour chaddis. Can you guys use them?” Saumik Dutta wrote on Facebook.

Radhika Sutradhar said she might “print his (Mutalik’s) name on one or two” of the dozen she would be sending.

Christopher D’Cunha had a word of caution. “Please make a hole in the chaddis… otherwise they (the Sena) will make money out of it.”

Another Facebook campaign, to flood Mutalik with V-Day cards, has been started by Roshni, a Chennai-based content writer. People can buy a card, sign it and drop it at designated drop boxes in Chennai and Bangalore to be forwarded to Mutalik. Virtual cards sent to the Facebook site would be sent in the form of printouts.

“My Dear Honey Bun Mutalik — be my Valentine,” said college student Kavya’s card.