Thiruvananthapuram: Moral policing has been a point of conversation in Kerala for some time, but an event that is planned in the state’s commercial capital on Sunday has refocused attention on the morality debate and is keeping authorities on tenterhooks.
Dozens of people plan to mark November 2 as “kissing day”, with a plan to hold a mega “Kiss of love” programme at the Marine Drive in Kochi.
The decision itself was prompted by a recent incident in Kozhikode where a group of people vandalised a café, alleging “immoral activities” there. After a television channel aired clips of alleged immoral activities at the café, supporters of the Yuva Morcha, the youth wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party, attacked the café.
The “Kiss of love” promoters hope that their event will put an end to such self-styled moral policing.
But the programme itself is in jeopardy after police officials in Kochi clarified that there would be no permission for such a mass kissing event. Police are reportedly planning to deploy large numbers of staff in plainclothes at the proposed venue.
Kochi police commissioner K.G. James has said there would no permission for such an event in a public place, even as social media is awash in comments like “This is Kerala’s pink chaddi moment” (referring to the Ram Sena of Pramod Muthalik getting swamped by pink underwear after the organisation attacked pubs in Mangalore, which it thought was immoral activity).
But the “Kiss of love” proponents do not seem to be deterred. A Facebook page opened by the movement has already attracted over 15,000 likes and they say that “morality-policing ‘goons’ should be given a fitting reply through the loving act of a kiss”.
Some of those who have come out in support of the mass-kissing drive to fight moral policing, say that they decided to support the movement because it was not led by any vested interests or political parties. Some commented on social media that it is movements like this which have led to major socio-political shake-ups across the world in recent years.
One of the supporters, Rahul Pasupalan says on his Facebook page that “if social media were present half a century ago, moral policing men would put comments of protest against women who covered their chests. Many people are led by the fundamentalist thought that only the current practice is correct. It has always been so.”
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad has said it will deal with the development through legal channels and take efforts to “create awareness” about social values. Meanwhile, many netizens are rooting for the mass kissing drive and some are even planning to come down from Bangalore to Kochi on Sunday to show their support.