The Valentine’s Day in Dehradun was observed peacefully on Saturday barring a protest staged by around a dozen of local Bajrang Dal, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Durga Vahini activists.
They vented anger over such pompous celebrations, emanating from the West, weakening the roots of India’s culture. However, security was stepped up across the city on the eve of Valentine’s Day, i.e., on Friday and on Saturday too, such reinforcements were visible on the roads to ensure the day passed off glitch-free.
The protesters assembled at Parade Ground and shouted anti-V-Day slogans. However, no couple celebrating the day was harassed. Earlier, they had warned that they would hold protests across the city to articulate the collective anger of the people against the intrusion of the ‘Occidental perversion’ into the capital of Devbhoomi.
Amit Tomar, one of the protesters, said that the Valentine’s Day celebration had been started in some developed countries a few decades ago. “Now it is spreading its tentacles everywhere to the detriment of the cultural roots of countries like India. It is being foisted here on design to sweep us off our hoary cultural moorings. Unless we rise up to stonewall such invasion of obscenity collectively the day would not be far -off when nothing would be left of what we pride ourselves on –our timeless heritage,” he said.
Another protester said there is nothing wrong in imbibing the positive aspects of the Western culture. “We are here to protest the culture of obscenity that is swaying us now. We are aping here what the sensible in the West are rejecting as perversion,” he added.