Public display of Hypocrisy?
Okay so we need to get this right. Peeing in the public
is acceptable but a peck on the cheek isn’t. The skewed moral attitude of the
people of this land has continued to baffle me for years.
Have you ever faced harrassment in the hands of the
police for indulging in so called public display of affection? If no, then well
and good but if yes, you will know exactly what I am talking about.
In 2009, a Delhi court threw out the case against a young,
married couple who were picked up by police allegedly for kissing near the
railway station. In 2007, people burnt effigies of Richard Gere and Shilpa
Shetty because the Hollywood actor publicly embraced her in a "sexually
provocative" way. Also, I recently stumbled upon an article on the net
wherein members of a organisation allegedly assaulted a boy and a girl
belonging to different communities in January 2014, when they were holding
hands while walking on a beach near Surathkal on Wednesday.
Public display of affection, the most common word used in
FIR registers of our police stations has always been a debatable issue in
society. So, why can’t we kiss? Why can’t we hold hands?
We are given the right to vote, to choose a government
but not the right to be responsible for our actions. In the garb of preserving
our Indian culture , we have been subjected to a number of unreasonable
restrictions. The ancient history of
India has never ever had such impositions and restrictions. Furthermore, there
i an entire book of the ‘art’ of sex named Kamasutra, written by Indians. So, doesn’t
that make us hypocrites?
We want to
promote and give our children sex education but we, of course aren’t
comfortable with PDA. Now that’s called irony at its best!
Every now and then we come across news of the police and
self recruited guardians of public morality, bashing up young couples holding
hands, hugging or showing any kind of affection. I got to thinking why this is.
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| Courtesy: Google Images |
The law of our land stands in guard of this claim that
pda is immoral. According to Indian
Penal Code Section 294 (a): Whoever, to the annoyance of others does any obscene act in any public place,
shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may
extend to three months, or with fine, or with both.
Now this law is contentious. What may be obscene for one
may not be for the other. The definition of what’s obscene and what’s not can
be debated at length. In my view this is violation of our fundamental right to
expression, Expression of love in this case.
We live in a society where public display of hatred is not given much attention. No person
would give you rueful looks if u hit somebody on the road, or get into a fight.
However if they see you getting close with your boyfriend, they would judge you
like they have been especially appointed for the task. It is deemed acceptable for a
mother to publicly hug her son or for two friends of the same gender to hold
hands but for two lovers to hold hands or hug becomes a moral concern in our
society.
Talking about the self appointed moral
police lurking all around. Now everybody wants to be a hero. And what are the
tasks for which they do self appointing
for? Protecting the Indian culture I guess. I don’t think of any other thing
because I haven’t read or heard about anything that they do except Imposing
Indian culture on people and in its inauthentic form that too. Harassing and humiliating young couples is
unacceptable. Every person has right to express his/her love and go out to spend
sometime together – without offending anyone and also maintaining self respect.
