Kiss of Love: Kochi's version of Pink Chaddi campaign to fight moral policing

Speculating agitations, Kochi police has given a thumbs down to Kerala’s hug-and-kiss day — a non-violent protest against the moral policing. In order to express solidarity with the coffee shop, which was attacked last week by BJP youth wing activists, a group of youngsters decided to observe a ‘kiss day’ in the port city of Kochi onNovember 2. The NDTV report quoted the police saying that it was an incident of moral policing. However according to latest reports, the volunteers who were propagating the programme at marine drive, were also attacked by the suspected ‘moral’ police on Wednesday. [caption id=“attachment_1778241” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Image: Facebook[/caption] According to reports, their placards were torn up by a group of men, who did not specify whether they belonged or supported a political group. They men even tried to manhandle the volunteers and hurled abuses at a woman who came along with her husband. Given the situation, the police denied permission for the “kiss” programme in November but the organisers confirmed that they will anyway go ahead with the show as planned. According to a report in Manorama, police personnel will be deployed at Kochi’s Marine Drive on the day and if the situation goes out of hand, they would intervene. So far, they have received 3,915 confirmations of those participating through Facebook. The organizers said their aim was not to target any political party or group but to draw attention to the fact that it was not acceptable to intrude into someone’s privacy citing moral reasons. “Criminalization of affection and love is really bad. The attack against the coffee shop was just a trigger. Sadly this tendency is growing everywhere,” S Rahul, one of the organizers was quoted as saying by The Hindustan Times. The Facebook page for the protest says, “Moral Policing is a criminal activity. Most of political parties and religious organizations try to do that. A group of young bloods join their hands together to prove to society that the kiss is the symbol of love.”

#KissOfLove has delivered a much needed shock to Kerala’s patriarchy. Solidarity to the Nov 2 protest! #KissDay https://t.co/K986TixExC

— Asif Kalam (@asifskalam) October 29, 2014

Last week a coffee shop named Down Town Cafe was allegedly attacked by a group of political activists alleging it was a haven for young lovers indulging in indecent activities. In 2009, a similar incident had occured in Mangalore when a ‘pink chaddi’ campaign was started against Sri Ram Sene leader Pramod Muthalik following his threat to disrupt Valentine’s Day celebrations. Eminent personalities from the state such as Kochouseph Chittilappilly of V-Guard and film personalities Joy Mathew and Aashiq Abu have come out publicly condemning the attack by Yuva Morcha in Kozhikode.