Valentine's Day: Hindu Mahasabha to be on prowl, youth undaunted

While youth in Delhi warm up to celebrate love with red roses and colourful gifts on Valentine's Day Feb 14, the Hindu Mahasabha Friday said their volunteers would have couples spliced up if found in an act of "indecent display of love" in public space.

With white roses in their hands, as many as 45 volunteers of the right-wing group would be on the prowl in parks, movie theatres, restaurants and other public places across the city with their target would be the couples expressing love for each other in three words 'I Love You' or found locked in an embrace, defined as "indecent" by Hindu Mahasabha president Chandra Prakash Kaushik.

He said his trained volunteers would accost such couples and teach them the "right" definition of love, persuading them to marry each other.

"We are not enemy of love. The indecent expression of love in public places is what we object to.

"Regardless of their caste, we want to facilitate the marriages of those couples who are unable to tie a knot because of parental pressure or any other reason," Kaushik told IANS.

Unfazed by the group's plan, 27-year-old Maswood Khan said nothing would withhold him from expressing love to his girlfriend on Feb 14.

"I'll take her for a long ride, then will give her a red rose bouquet and ask her 'Will you be my Valentine?' I don't care what Hindu groups plan to do. I am not doing anything wrong so I am not afraid of expressing my love," Khan told IANS.

On Facebook, "Shud Desi Romance - Everyone weds Anyone", that sports a couple of smiling men in saffron with a tagline - " "Get ready to marry!" openly invites struggling lovers to the Hindu Mahasabha office.

But the invitation cut no ice with the Jawaharlal Nehru university Student's Union that dared the Mahasabha to marry an inter-caste couple and gays.

"Will you marry a boy to a boy he likes, or a girl to a girl? Will you acknowledge their love for each other, repeal section 377?" it asks.

National Students Union of India (NSUI) lagged behind no one.

The student wing of the Congress organized a 'Love Parade', followed by a street play, on the eve of Valentine's Day in Delhi University to celebrate the spirit of love and unity and distributed chocolates and roses to students who joined in, said a statement by the NSUI.

Equally upbeat was the commercial market with fancy decorations and special offers for the ones in love.

Archies, a retail chain, introduced a range of 182 greeting cards and gifts based on Valentine's theme with 'Love you this much' puppy and 'With you always' couple teddy.

In Daily deals site Groupon India's Valentine's Day survey, which polled over 2,000 adults across India, women let out a collective cheer for special gifts (54 percent), a romantic dinner date (26 percent) or opted for a simple romantic night at home (22 percent).