Holding on to archaic (cultural) values is a sign of resisting change, it’s like a petulant child refusing to go to school. Certain elements in our society have voluntarily taken up the job to safeguard our culture against western influence and save our youth from corruption. It’s that time of the year again and they are set for their yearly gig – moral policing on Valentine’s Day. Just like every year they will accomplish this task by identifying public spots infested with lovers (read consenting adults) and commit acts of violence because they feel angry and hurt at their ‘immoral conduct’.
This gig will sit pretty on their resumes along with their previous stints in raising their voice against love marriages, couples meeting in public spaces, sex education in schools. They have also developed a vaccine to inject morals in every person during infancy and made special efforts in safeguarding women’s virtues by making sure their vaginas are buckled and locked (double checked) in their pants or the ‘appropriate’ Indian women clothing. We owe them big time for safeguarding our family’s honour.
I am not sure where this set of skills exactly fit but they have done a great job at humiliating grown up ‘kids’. It’s not easy to gang up on unsuspecting gift exchangers, hand holders, starry eyed lovers who are blatantly displaying their emotions in the open. How can someone accept such an expression of love and not react especially when we young fools are more scared of them calling our parents than the police? And the best part is the media circus every year around this whole gig, who go to great measures in exposing our immoral acts and inviting the public to judge.
You see public display of affection is harmful more harmful than public display of harassment. This cannot be overlooked. What do these grown up kids know about adulting anyways? They don’t know what to wear, don’t know what academic course to opt for, don’t know who to choose as their life partners and if it wasn’t for section 377 they might as well go ahead and mistakenly fall in love with the wrong person altogether! Bottom line is they are clueless, they need the policing, and they need the morals. Like a bitter pill, this needs to be shoved down their throats.
By suppressing all channels of rightful interaction between the sexes you are encouraging forceful encounters. Why certain elements in our society are bent on enforcing their thoughts and belief system on others? Why are they not afraid to use violence to achieve it? What about individual rights? What is this culture they keep talking about? What about human rights? Why can’t we let consenting adults themselves decide what violating the ‘Lakshman Rekha’ means for them?
