The police and cadres of right-wing organizations late Sunday afternoon foiled the ‘Kiss of Life’ protest organized by the Facebook community ‘Free Thinkers’ against moral policing.
The community had called for a flash-mob-like mass event at the Marine Drive area here to express their opposition to the moral policing incident that took place over a week before at Kozhikode. A group of Yuva Morcha activists had attacked and damaged a restaurant where a young couple had engaged in a kiss. The Yuva Morcha had alleged that PDA (public display of affection) in the café had violated Indian values.
Even as hundreds of onlookers and scores of TV cameras eagerly awaited the 5 p.m. event at the Marine Drive area, the police took a group of Kiss of Life protesters into preventive custody, chased away the right-wing protesters against the protest and scattered the onlookers, thus effectively ending the agitation. Earlier, scores of activists of Shiv Sena and ABVP had arrived at the venue and threatened to stop the Free Thinkers’ protesters at any cost.
They had roughed up some of the people who had arrived at the venue with placards. There were also several youth groups such as those of Democratic Youth Federation of India and Students Federation of India who had come to the venue to offer support to the Free Thinkers’ protest.
The police, who did not refuse permission for the protest, however, had warned that they would intervene if the agitation caused a law-and-order issue. Claiming they feared confrontation between the anti-protest activist and pro-protest groups, the police took several young protesters, including women, into custody and packed them off to police stations.
Activists of some organizations had in the forenoon taken out rallies opposing the protest as they said it was against decency and public morality. But, they had said they would not physically stop the protesters.
The protest had drawn huge curiosity online as well as from across the country because of the novel form of protest and the extensive publicity it received on the internet.
The protest announcement had whipped up intense passions among sections of society. While the majority of people criticized the way the moral police had struck the Kozhikode restaurant, several others feared PDA in a café or public place would hurt Indian value system and traditions.