HYDERABAD: Valentine’s Day is just four days away. While couples are gearing up, trying to pick the right gifts and cards for their significant others, Vishwa Hindu Parishad is on its mission – to preserve and promote Indian culture.
They have their strategic plans ready to discourage people from celebrating it. Though the organisation has been actively condemning the act for many years, there is a special update this year. The group has revealed that people who plan to express their love online, via social networking sites like Facebook or even Whatsapp will be traced and married in the presence of a VHP head, lawyers, police and also their parents.
Elaborating on their action plan, Bharat Vamsi, media in-charge for Bajrang Dal says they have already started working on it. “We will send warning letters to clubs, resorts and any other place that will promote celebrations. Greeting cards that are spotted will be burnt. We will go to all those places where celebrations are being held and stage a dharna,” he informs.
The motto of the organisation is to promote Indian culture. “Indian culture does not approve of putting your love on display to everyone. We are not against love. We just want to make sure that couples don’t adopt foreign culture,” he clarifies. He blames MNCs for promoting this culture in India. “MNCs want to sell their products in the name of Valentine’s Day and make money. Indian money is going to foreign land in this way and we want to discourage that.”
Apart from this, even parks, that are meant for children to play and people to relax, have become love spots, he observes. “We will catch hold of couples and take them to our office. If they are minors, we will hand them over to police. If they are majors, we will counsel them along with their parents and get them married in presence officials and elders,” he explains further.
What if parents oppose the marriage? Bharat Vamsi responds on a lighter note, “Jab miya biwi razi, toh kya karega kazi.”(When the boy and the girl agree, other person has no business)
“Couples in love will want to get married in future and no parent would want to go against their child’s wishes, so there is no chance of parents opposing,” he adds.
While VHP and other organisations are prepared with their strategies, City Express also got in touch with people under VHP’s target. Siddharth, who manages a well-known cafe in the city, says it is wrong on the part of VHP to do moral policing because couples have the right to do whatever they want. “They should not ban people who want to celebrate love and have a day marked for it,” he opines adding that these warnings are not going to deter them.
“We are going ahead with V-Day celebrations. We are decorating the cafe. There will be light music going on through out the day. A few combos and offers have also been planned for the couples to cherish the day marked for couples,” he says with confidence.
Not scared of the consequences, one radio station from the city is also prepared to launch its week-long Valentine’s Day special show where they will encourage people to love their partners sensibly. Commenting on VHP’s plans, Saisagar Patnaik, programming head says, “They are against people celebrating Valentine’s day since ages. It does not make sense to attack them just because someone wants to celebrate love.”
Rajit, corporate employee, also commenting on the VHP strategies says that moral policing can also be an advantage to many. “If any parent of a couple does not approve of them getting married, they can go out together in public purposely and get themselves caught. This way they would not have to struggle convincing parents,” he laughs.