Feb 14, 2009
We decided to go for a stroll at the nearby handicrafts exhibition center cum garden (Shiplaramam) and then to have a nice Barbecue. Feb 14th has lost its charm in India due to the protests made by various activists, attack on girls at the pub, forced marriages of couples found in parks, beaches, etc; Most of my friends decided to celebrate the Valentine’s day on the next weekend as they were afraid of attacks. On the other hand we were very confident as we are married for 1.5 years. Though, I was very confident my hands automatically kept more 'sindhoor' on my forehead. Yup I got stamped!!!! We reached the exhibition center, a security guard at the entrance stared at us and called us. He then told “Sorry sir, friends and lovers are not allowed!!" We were shocked. First of all we are married and secondly we found it as discrimination in democratic India! We told him that we are married and then proceeded to the ticket counter. The lady at the counter repeated the security guard's words “Friends and Lovers Not allowed" This time we both lost our temper and told them that this is discrimination. She intervened and told “I am doing my duty sir".
This incident fuelled my thoughts on various discriminations happening in our country, be it cast or creed or sexual orientations or 'lovers'. Our country requires people's attention on various matters such as poverty, unemployment, etc; But , people have their focus on other's private life such as these. How come we allow a set of people to roam around in the city and beat young girls going to pubs or teenagers at a park? Who are these moral police? What are their qualifications? It is our right to be with a person whom we are comfortable with. It is a person's freedom to decide whether or not to go to any pubs. Doing these kind of moral policing will not help anybody. I heard politicians saying that pubs are not part of our culture. Then what is our culture? Is it allowing a hub of slums to grow in our country? Is it allowing terrorists to fool our security guards and hamper our lives? Is it leaving our girls for immoral trafficking? Is it beating the ladies and barring their freedom? Is it slaving thousands of villagers by not giving education or electricity at their villages? Is it granting liceneces to liquor shops and pubs more than that of hospitals and schools and involving in bribary? Is it discarding the developments of government hospitals and schools?
If these moral police who generally consists of uneducated and unemployed youth is trying to achieve anything for their country, then they should open their eyes and see the real issues in India. Why can’t they form a network containing informers from various parts of our country, who can inform the police if they see anything suspicious going on.
Why can’t they bring up issues such as education of underprivileged children or health services for senior citizens? If they are trying to bring in the values and if they vision the values mentioned in the epics, then I plead them to read our epics and show me the chapter where it is written to beat young girls and where it is written about banning friends and lovers from visiting a park.
We don’t need any moral police. This is India, democratic country with laws, judiciary in place. Nobody can buy as by showing political gimmicks, Beware!!!
We decided to go for a stroll at the nearby handicrafts exhibition center cum garden (Shiplaramam) and then to have a nice Barbecue. Feb 14th has lost its charm in India due to the protests made by various activists, attack on girls at the pub, forced marriages of couples found in parks, beaches, etc; Most of my friends decided to celebrate the Valentine’s day on the next weekend as they were afraid of attacks. On the other hand we were very confident as we are married for 1.5 years. Though, I was very confident my hands automatically kept more 'sindhoor' on my forehead. Yup I got stamped!!!! We reached the exhibition center, a security guard at the entrance stared at us and called us. He then told “Sorry sir, friends and lovers are not allowed!!" We were shocked. First of all we are married and secondly we found it as discrimination in democratic India! We told him that we are married and then proceeded to the ticket counter. The lady at the counter repeated the security guard's words “Friends and Lovers Not allowed" This time we both lost our temper and told them that this is discrimination. She intervened and told “I am doing my duty sir".
This incident fuelled my thoughts on various discriminations happening in our country, be it cast or creed or sexual orientations or 'lovers'. Our country requires people's attention on various matters such as poverty, unemployment, etc; But , people have their focus on other's private life such as these. How come we allow a set of people to roam around in the city and beat young girls going to pubs or teenagers at a park? Who are these moral police? What are their qualifications? It is our right to be with a person whom we are comfortable with. It is a person's freedom to decide whether or not to go to any pubs. Doing these kind of moral policing will not help anybody. I heard politicians saying that pubs are not part of our culture. Then what is our culture? Is it allowing a hub of slums to grow in our country? Is it allowing terrorists to fool our security guards and hamper our lives? Is it leaving our girls for immoral trafficking? Is it beating the ladies and barring their freedom? Is it slaving thousands of villagers by not giving education or electricity at their villages? Is it granting liceneces to liquor shops and pubs more than that of hospitals and schools and involving in bribary? Is it discarding the developments of government hospitals and schools?
If these moral police who generally consists of uneducated and unemployed youth is trying to achieve anything for their country, then they should open their eyes and see the real issues in India. Why can’t they form a network containing informers from various parts of our country, who can inform the police if they see anything suspicious going on.
Why can’t they bring up issues such as education of underprivileged children or health services for senior citizens? If they are trying to bring in the values and if they vision the values mentioned in the epics, then I plead them to read our epics and show me the chapter where it is written to beat young girls and where it is written about banning friends and lovers from visiting a park.
We don’t need any moral police. This is India, democratic country with laws, judiciary in place. Nobody can buy as by showing political gimmicks, Beware!!!
