Kisses and chaos mark New Year in Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram: Kissing on the street, a police baton charge and general chaos in Kozhikode marked Kerala’s entry into the New Year on Friday.

The incident occurred when a ‘Kiss of Street’ programme, organised by a local cultural organisation, Njattuvela Samskarika Samithi (Seasons cultural organisation), was opposed by right wing activists.

When the two groups came to blows, police resorted to a baton charge, took into custody supporters of both sides and removed them from the venue. The clashes occurred at Kidson Square in Kozhikode town.

Organisers said the symbolic kissing event was organised “to protest upper-class fascism, the hegemony of the caste system and intolerance”. Ahead of the protest, one of the organisers, Swapnesh Babu, had said that discussions on morality had become a casualty in the state owing to intolerance and a lack of clarity.

Friday’s event proposed to highlight male dominance in society and was to feature a number of street plays, but the event had a short life as it met with protests and police action.

Social activism was a defining feature of the state through most of 2015, and the incident in Kozhikode on the first day of 2016 points to more such episodes this year.

The Kiss of Love protests organised last year against the rising incidents of moral policing in the state had caught the fancy of the public, and the event was held in multiple towns in Kerala. However, the movement ended as the chief promoter of the idea, Rahul Pasupalan and his wife, Reshmi Nair, were arrested on charges of running an online sex racket.