Kiss of love, the programme of public kissing and hugging to protest against moral policing, seems to be going viral in Kerala with at least three events taking place within a week, shocking traditionalists who think that unbridled public display of gestures of male-female ‘friendship’ indicates a tendency towards cultural anarchy and may cause serious social disturbances.
The Kiss of love protest against moral policing was first staged in Kochi on November 2 amidst a law and order mess in which the police were forced to use lathis when kissers and traditionalists came close to an encounter in the middle of a sea of onlookers who had reached there out of mere curiosity or, as some people allege, some voyeuristic tendency.
Before a week was out, a similar programme was staged in one of the most reputed senior colleges in Kerala leading to the suspension of ten students — both boys and girls — who participated in it and triggering public debates over the appropriateness of students transforming campuses into nests of love and signs of cultural fascism entering academic institutions.
Friday’s public hugging among “friends” was held at the famous Maharaja’s College in Kochi, hardly two kilometres away from the Marine Drive grounds where the Kiss of love protest was staged on November 2. The suspended students are now planning to sue college principal TV Francis for penalising them allegedly without holding even a preliminary enquiry.
Solidarity to Kiss of love was expressed by enthusiasts in Thrissur city even before the mega-event was held at Kochi. A group of young men and women walked through the famous Thekkinkadu Maidan on November 1, hugging each other and those they met on their way. The programme was over before traditionalists and the police got time to respond.
Police officials now say that kissing in public to oppose moral policing is threatening to turn as worse a problem as moral policing itself. “The recent developments have created in people like us a tendency to give particular attention to groups of boys and girls at public spaces. We don’t know if they would start kissing or hugging all of a sudden,” said a police officer in Kochi.
“I feel that it is beginning to unsettle the society,” said Rajeshwari, a college lecturer with a traditional background. “I don’t know whether it is appropriate for boys and girls to kiss or hug in the open but even mere talks about it are drawing immediate objections. But then, society has always gone through such disturbances,” she said.
‘I don’t understand these discussions over right to hug and kiss. What I am concerned about is that I may one day have to watch on the TV news my college-going daughter performing this hug-and-kiss game. I swear I won’t be able to stand it. Those who preach progressive theories can do so at will but social reality is very different,” said Prathapan Nair, a parent from Thrissur.
Kiss of love protest against moral policing has also caused widening of the political divide in the Kerala society. Extreme leftist organizations have declared total support to kissers while the traditional left is giving them silent backing whereas the so-called right is totally against the movement and hardliners among them say that they will stop such attempts even physically.
The Kiss of love movement was born in response to a protest by the Yuva Morcha in Kozhikode on October 23 against a new-generation coffee shop where immoral activities had allegedly been going on. The protest had turned violent leading to damage to the coffee shop and drawing instant protests from all over the State.