Fundamentalism and the liberals

I write this as I was rather amused by the "liberal" views expressed on the Mangalore episode in today's edition of "We the People". As someone who takes immense pride in calling himself a liberal, I was surprised and angered by the "liberal" response after the Mangalore episode. The Pink Chaddi campaign, organised by a group of elite indians, amused and irritated me at the same time. I was devastated today when I found Ram Guha, one of the greatest intellectual of our times, speaking the language of "pink chaddhi activists". I could see the manifestation of liberal fundamentalism in the face of Hindu fundamentalism.
The Muthalik episode has divided urban idea into two halves. (Rural India doesn't care) Students, teachers, professionals, politicians, intellectuals are being called upon to choose sides : Pink panties Vs Khanki chaddhis.The problem is that making such a choice is a lot like making a choice between Bush and Saddam or IDF and Hezbollah.
What happened in Mangalore is deplorable. The Hindu right ,which has seldom understood the language of democracy, unleashed it's terror on innocent Mangloreans. The state turned a blind eye as the BJP smelled blood: a new issue before the polls.
However the intellectual debate that followed changed tracks and focused on something deeper: the concept of "moral policing". I was surprised by the the moral indignation,shown by the " liberals", about the concept of moral policing. They spoke as if the concept of "personal freedom" is absolute and sacrosanct. Can we name a society that doesn't indulge in moral policing? When the state stops a person from flashing in the public, is it not infringing on his personal freedom? Will feminists see that act of masturbation in public as an expression of personal freedom? When I state it to my feminists friends, they argue that this is something that causes unacceptable psychological harm to others, while the act of wears a mini skirt/going to bar is harmless. However the very idea of "causing unacceptable harm to others" is subjective and differs from person to person. A person coming from the interiors of Budelhand might be scandalized looking at women in tank tops on the streets of Delhi. Ideas regarding acceptable public behaviour can change very rapidly as we move from Malad to Bandra, from Murshidabad to Kolkata or even when we move from Sahajanabad to Luytens Delhi. Now to which sets of values should our laws, action, political behavior conform in a country. As a unapologetic democrat , I feel that it is natural the laws should reflect the values of the majority. I realize that such a view has it problems.By stretching my argument one can justify the acts of Narendra Modi or Buddhadev Bhhatacharya, but is there a better( fair and just) way of dealing with this problem of preference aggregation. However I often feel Indian laws, reaction of the media and polity reflect the ideas, morality and aspirations on a "liberal" elite and doesn't represent the views of India as a whole. Since the time of Nehru (remember the Hindu Code Bill), the ideas of an liberal oligarchy has been thrust down the throat of an unwilling majority. If this continues to happen we will soon and up in a situation like Turkey. Nothing helped the radical Islam in Turkey more than the western ideas of modernity imposed on unwilling masses by Attaturk and his successors.Sagarika Ghose mentioned in one of her blogs that she fears that India might end up being like Iran where a coterie of elite liberals had their way before 1979. If we liberals want our idea of an idea of an ideal society to prevail, we will have to reach out to the millions who don't share our vision of an ideal society. Have the liberals lost faith in the democratic process or have they lost faith in the average Indian? "Pink Panties" don't help. A few people get to score brownie points but the chasm between the two India's widen. Gandhi's country should be mature enough to understand that two wrong never make a right."Liberal" intolerance in face of "Hindu" intolerance will only create a more divided India , rather than the liberal paradise we envision.