Two extremely serious Karnataka incidents offer scope for some amused philosophising.

 A group called Sri Rama Sene attacked a pub in Mangalore sometime last week. Its uncouth members raided the place around 4 pm, and pulled out and assaulted girls enjoying their time out.

That incident outraged people everywhere, and we've seen protests not just in Mangalore but in other cities as well. TV channels have been talking about the incident, and holding panel discussions. The government has arrested the men who provoked the attack.

Just a couple of days after this incident, police raided a night club in Bangalore and rounded up a dozen "bar girls" and lined them up for the media to photograph. Bangalore has a perverse rule against drinking and dancing, and presumably, the girls were dancing at the night club. (Women serving liquor is no longer illegal in our city, thanks to a recent court ruling).

If you were a distinterested observer, you might be surprised that the police and the marauding hordes had behaved so similarly!

On Wednesday, an MLA called Sampangi was caught taking a bribe of Rs 5 lakh. Among those who pretended to be outraged was H D Deve Gowda, who started giving sanctimonious lectures against corruption. His son Kumaraswamy and his members of his party face bigger bribery charges, so it was a bit comical to see him hold forth about honesty and all that.

There's so much that's comic in our tragedies, folks! And when you look closely, the accuser and the accused aren't so different from each other.