Lasting Rose

This bewildered couple was not in Hartford but was visiting Kerala, an Indian State which takes great pride in calling itself  God’s Own Country, where laws written by Gods are still Gospel truth.

In fact the local police chief, who happened to be a lady, was simply enforcing an Indian law which makes it illegal for anyone to kiss in public on any day, when the couple, unaware of the local law, kissed before a camera at the request of a journalist who was covering an unusual event.

Anti Kiss of Life protesters being chased by police.

The event which was christened as Protest By Kissing was organised by a Facebook group called Kiss of Love, exemplifies the Indian struggle to catch up with  modernity. This unusual protest by breaking an age old law was a public reaction to the high handed puritanical moral policing of the BJP of Prime Minister Modi, whose members had ransacked a local hotel for allowing its customers to kiss and romance.

The unusual media coverage the event received in India and the way the whole episode sort of fissile out show the double standard on morality most Indians can’t shed despite the progress the country has achieved.

Though initiated by a group of people with progressive views on liberty and freedom of speech and expression active on social media, the movement soon gained political overtones inevitable in one of the politically conscious states of India.

The  puritanical moral policing was an act of the BJP, backed by India’s Hindu religious fundamentalists, who aim to grab the power from the Congress party who currently govern Kerala.

On the other hand, Kerala’s communists who are constantly fighting off the BJP has seen a political opportunity.

The result was that the Kiss of love event which was organised to be held peacefully was opposed and disturbed by various organisations under all of these political set ups, forcing the police to remove the handful of the participants even though the government did not intent to enforce the law.

The disruption by the political parties were organised with an eye on the coming election so as to position themselves on the right side of the kissing divide. But it clearly demonstrates the hypocrisy of a society which wants to align itself with the  free and liberal outside world.

Though this was an isolated incident which occurred in Kerala, a state  politically and socially ahead of rest of the country, the approach of the BJP which has succeeded in grabbing power at the national level by unifying and concentrating the votes of the Hindus who form the majority, in holding on to the archaic social set up of India is what worries the progressive minded in India.

New York Times cartoon on the success of Indian Mars Mission.

Incidentally this was reflected in a cartoon by the New York times on the occasion of the success of India’s Mars mission, which lead to widespread protests and  eventual apology from the paper.

Kiss of Love Facebook Group.

Meanwhile, the Kiss of Love brigade of Kerala has actually claimed success of their movement and promised to regroup and continue their efforts to change the social attitude of their countrymen  regarding freedom to love and expression of love. 

Amid all that euphoria of the massive election victory of the BJP, when the whole world was impatiently watching the steps of its would be Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, what captured the attention of the media was a  bizarre thanks giving meeting organised by it.

Several senior leaders of the BJP who won the recent election assembled to felicitate Baba Ramdev, who was conspicuously absent from the meet and media glare, who helped them win the election by his  blessings, which were more mundane than divine.

However the party can neither acknowledge nor felicitate the sources of the massive funds behind its campaign so openly, though someday somehow favours will have to be returned. For now, one Indian, who set out to expose and prevent corruption in India is languishing in the Tiharjail.

Arvind Kejeriwal and his AAP were broke even before he found he had no money to bail himself out. He had acknowledged long time back that his party had no funds to take on the NDA and the UPA in the parliamentary election, a political reality glaring at him he refused to see before setting out on his mission.

Let us face it, the Indian parliament election of 2014 has clearly enrolled India among the countries ruled by their religious  majority  where all other religions have only a minority status.

The Bharathiya Janata Party, a party widely perceived to be  based on Hindu Ideology and agenda of Hindutwa has won a landslide victory in the election of 2014, the results of which were announced today. The party has won a clear majority Of 283 seats and their National Democratic Alliance a total of 337 seats.

It would hardly be of concern if the massive majority was spread across the country because landslides in politics are nothing to write home about.

It is the localisation of the un opposed power of the BJP, as is clear from the CNN IBN graphic which changes the nature of governance of India.

With Narendra Modi's Victory, India chooses to go back to the Power of One http://ibnlive.in.com/home_america.html

There are no representation of opposition in several  states in India, which comprise a large chunk of the Indian population concentrated on an equally large part of the Indian land mass. It is as if India has been physically divided again.