A battery of impatient journalists, disapproving policemen and animated passersby – all this and some hurried kisses defined the “Kiss of Love” on Friday. The “protest” was organised to assert the right to love and express in public without being harassed and beaten up, but only around 50 of the 1,500 who were registered online showed up.
The original intention was to “kiss” in front of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh office but even after half an hour of chanting “Halla bol” and “Delhi Police shame shame”, protestors cum kissers could not move from the space in front of the Jhandewalan metro station.
“These things happen in your generation, it never happened in our generation. Of course we are not going to let them get to the RSS office. We will stand here till they give up and go home,” said a cop when asked how long they were planning to block their way.
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“Why don’t you people just go in there and hug so we can film you and leave?” asked a television journalist who had managed to push her way past the human chain formed by the protestors as well as other journalists and random passersby.
“Why don’t you journalists go and see how much environmental damage is being done to the city instead of seeing this?” asked senior citizen Rakesh Bhalla.
Another girl, who said she was from National Law University, preached about standing up for the cause, but publically ran away and hid as soon as some journalists asked her to introduce herself. “Call me a hypocrite, I don’t care. I am here, do not impose your opinion on me,” she screamed.
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“They are bringing Bharat a bad name. What is the world coming to,” said another cop.
“This is so much fun, I think instead of calling it the kiss of love, they should have called it the freedom movement of something,” said Prakash, a shopkeeper who found himself a place on a nearby terrace to watch the whole show. “I wish the girls would kiss the boys, instead of girls kissing girls on the cheek and boys kissing each other on the cheek,” he added.
The protestors went on singing “ Pyar kiya toh darna kya” and “ Jumma chumma de de” when they were not being pushed around. Some even manage a few chaste cheek kisses.
After a while they move on, trying to find another way to reach the RSS office, and are followed for a while by the RSS people shouting slogans to preserve “Indian culture”. Both groups are stopped by the police barricades again. A lot of chanting and some more singing follow before the curtain falls on the protest with some proper kissing on the lips and some more hissing from the RSS representatives.