Kerala's 'Kiss day' event volunteers attacked by moral police

Kochi, Oct 29: Volunteers of Kerala's much-talked about upcoming event "A Kiss of love" were attacked by alleged 'moral police' while they were campaigning at marine drive on Wednesday, said a

The event is scheduled to be held on November 2 at Marine Drive, a popular hang out spot in Kochi.

According to the IBN report, the volunteers of the event were attacked by two men who stated that the event is a 'danger to the society'. They tried to manhandle the volunteers and hurled abuses at them

The event was launched as a protest against members of Yuva Morcha, a youth wing of BJP, who vandalized a restaurant in Calicut after a Congress-owned TV channel telecasted a video footage that showed young couples making out there.

The volunteers initially started a Facebook page inviting people to come forward with their husbands/wives or partners to kiss or share a hug at marine drive to protest against the moral policing act.

The 'Kiss of Love' campaign is organised by "Free Thinkers" - a group on Facebook- led by short film maker Rahul Pasupalan.

However, Kochi police is not very amused. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) R Nishanthini, said police have decided to reject permission for the programme. Rahul told PTI that he had met police officials yesterday with a written request to permit holding of the event.

'We have not heard from them. But we are going ahead with the programme. We have not been told that permission has been denied', he said. Their facebook post has received over 20,000 likes, he said adding they were expecting at least 200 volunteers to turn up for the event.

The VHP state unit said in a statement said they would take all steps to ensure that such an event is not held. 'Kiss of Love', is only being spread through social media and we are trying to find out whether it is really being planned or is a fake one. Also we are trying to find out the source and the people behind it', the statement said. Certain legal steps were also being taken to prevent the conduct of the programme.

Pointing that kissing in public was against Indian culture, VHP, however, denied reports that it would take steps to physically prevent the programme from being held. "VHP will not take law into their hands to prevent people from participating in the event," the statement said.

Oneindia News

(With PTI inputs)