Fear of freedom

In July 2004, a small band of middle-aged women stripped themselves naked in front of Imphal’s Kangla Fort, where Assam Rifles, a paramilitary force, was headquartered, and shouted: “Indian Army, rape us too.” The shocking protest was against the alleged rape and murder of Thangjam Manorama, a 34-year-old Manipuri woman, by its men. She had been gang-raped and bullets had been shot through her vagina.

The Kangla Fort protest has since become an beacon for struggles against human rights violations — an iconic symbol of the battle of the powerless against the powers that be.

Though totally different from the Manipur people’s long agitation for repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act that covered up Manorama’s rape and murder, the ‘Kiss of Love’ protest at Kochi was also intended to shock the social conscience to its senses. The kiss protesters wanted to say: Stop moral policing; kissing is the fundamental right of every human. The protest was foiled by Bajrang Dal, Shiv Sena as well s the police at Kochi on November 2.

A fortnight ago, Yuva Morcha (BJP’s youth wing) activists had damaged a Kozhikode café where a young couple had kissed in public! According to them, the public expression of affection had caused violence to Indian values and traditions.

Though generally tending to be conservative, most Keralites were shocked by the attack. Intellectuals, cultural activists and commentators fear that moral policing — of the Sri Ram Sena and Taliban kind — has arrived in their State which had been showing increasing signs of becoming communal, intolerant and revisionist.

They believe that the socio-cultural values that Kerala had imbibed from Hindu social renaissance movements and communism in the 20th century is fast eroding and neo-illiberalism rapidly gaining ground.

After Narendra Modi came to power in Delhi, there has been a strident assertion of their presence by Sangh Parivar organisations, many of which had been lying dormant. The Parivar is aiming to enable the BJP to take centre-stage in the 2015 local bodies elections and the 2016 Assembly polls. In an electorate of which only roughly half is Hindu, the Parivar needs shocking ways to spread its clout.

Moral policing, in the name of Indian values and Hindu traditions, is one of the easy ways to catch Hindu attention. The ‘Kiss of Love’ protest organised by the ‘freethinkers’ Facebook community was planned as a flash mob affair to assert human beings’ fundamental right to kiss. But, the right-wingers, many of them young people themselves, threatened violence and stopped the protest.

The police, fearing law-and-order issues, took the would-be protesters into custody (some of them kissed in the police vans anyway!). There were hardly 50 ‘real’ protesters but there were over 5,000 onlookers hoping to get a kick out of the kissing display. And, scores of TV cameras.

So, though the protest was foiled, the protesters were able to send across their message. The intended shock of ‘Kiss of Love’ has been delivered, like that of the Manipuri women.

How do Indian values and traditions get hurt when a man and woman kiss? How can it reverse or affect socio-cultural or economic progress? Kissing is a simple act of love, an expression of affection and appreciation for each other by two humans. Giving it any other connotation is unacceptable.