Youth to celebrate Kiss of Love in Kerala against moral policing, police on tenterhooks

Kerala, Oct 29: Coming Sunday will be celebrated as hug-and-kiss day at Kochi's Marine Drive, Youngsters in Kerala have announced. They have also said that the day will be celebrated by youngsters by hugging and kissing their partners in public.

They made this announcement after the alleged members of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha vandalised a popular coffee shop, Downtown, in Kozhikode in Kerala. The activists had reportedly told the police that they vandalised the shop as they were campaigning against "immoral activities" in restaurants and coffee shops.

Youngsters organised the programme and will also be inviting people to participate in an attempt to fight for their right to express love.

The youngsters will do so do as a mark of protest against this attack by the activists.

A Facebook page has been opened to spread the word about the same and the page says participants should come with placards reading ‘Kiss of love' on Sunday.

The shop which has been vandalised would stay open till late night and was popular with youngsters, especially amongst students of Indian Institute of Management and National Institute of Technology.

Noted writer NS Madhavan was quoted as saying in Indian Express, "This is Kerala's ‘pink chaddi' moment. Remember how social media campaign against Mangalore pub attacks resulted in moral police chief Pramod Muthalik of Sri Ram Sene getting drowned under a sea of pink underwear...I have to warn about equally vigilant Kerala police who can misuse Section 294 of IPC against public display of affinity. Well-intentioned youth behind the campaign should be cautious.''

This non-violent protest against the moral policing, has been given the thumbs down by the Kerala police as the Deputy commissioner of police (Kochi City) R Nishanthini told TOI on Tuesday that "permission will not be granted to hold the Kiss of Love event in Kochi on November 2".

Meanwhile, Rahul Pasupalan, a short film maker and one of the organizers was quoted as saying in the daily, "We will not make any announcement nor will we place any placards. As per law, 20 to 25 people will gather without permission. We will definitely meet."

OneIndia News