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Police fall out of love!

Be careful lovers, cops will watch you from today till Feb 15!

Posted On Wednesday, February 03, 2010 at 02:42:34 AM

Valentine’s Day is round the corner and the jitterbug is spreading. This time, the city’s cops have decided to moral police you, leaving the regular moral police jobless but joyful.

While the cops say the rules are just enforcement of existing laws, you don’t have to be a genius to understand that V-Day has prompted it.

If it was just ‘enforcement’, what about laws like the helmet rule? A Mirror team looks at various aspects of this soft Talibanisation, using a grey area in the law

Cops justify curbs by saying they love peace
Valentines’ Day might be 12 days away but the moral policing will begin today! This year, the anti-Valentine’s Day brigade has received a shot in the arm, with Joint Commissioner of Police putting curbs that prohibit assembly of people, making obscene gestures, music in colleges etc.

The curbs will apply to privately-owned places as well. The cops say this is not moral policing and is meant to prevent untoward incidents. Our question is, why not have a helpline that people can call up if they are harassed by the usual moral police?

No love lost between the Sena, BJP and MNS
The Bharatiya Vidyarthi Sena, the most visible moral police, is thrilled. They have said that they are not alone anymore. They have said the “people are with them” and that they “only bash up obscene people”.

The BJP feels vindicated at last. In fact, the protest against V-Day was their idea, which was hijacked by the Shiv Sena later. But the MNS disagrees. They say the cops are violating personal freedom, guaranteed by the Constitution

Forget V-Day, India has a whole season for love
Most of us know that India has had an inclusive culture all through her history. The oft-repeated example of our liberal past is the Khajuraho temple sculptures.

So, V-Day should not threaten us because we have Vasantotsav, where ‘blossoming’ is celebrated, a metaphor of spring being the season of love.

While the West has only one day marked for love, we have a whole season! We spoke to the head of the Sanskrit department of Pune University, Shailaja Katre, to learn more about Vasantotsav.

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