Luxury Webblog Spot

Valentine’s Day has become hugely popular here and in other Indian cities thanks to the mindless opposition to the harmless event by activists of Hindutva outfits in recent years.

But when Pramod Mutalik, a publicity-seeking functionary of the little-known saffron outfit, Valentine’s Day gift Sri Rama Sene (SRS), sent his hooligans to attack women in a pub in Mangalore — even inviting television crews to cover it — last month, he struck a raw nerve in cities, enraging millions of young, educated and liberal Indians.

Thanks to the power of television, the mass media and the internet, Valentine’s Day this year will be celebrated in a grand manner in cities like Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. The overwhelming response from young, urban educated Indians to the ‘anti-Talebanisation’ campaign being launched by individuals, activists and NGOs has come as a bolt from the blue to Hindutva outfits.

In Mumbai, for instance, the Shiv Sena, which has for years been opposing Valentine’s Day celebrations, has maintained an unusual silence on the issue. In fact, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), which is assiduously wooing the urban youth in Mumbai, has openly come out in support of Valentine’s Day celebrations.

Jitendra Avhad, a leader of the NCP, has set up a stall outside the busy Thane station, selling V-day cards. Thane is a traditional Shiv Sena/Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) stronghold. Gift shops, hotels and restaurants, jewellery retailers and others are also openly advertising special V-Day promotions in newspapers, on television and in the outdoors.

In fact, even retailers in Sena bastions like central Mumbai report a huge demand for greeting cards,bangles gifts and accessories. An emerging lower-middle, consuming class, comprising young collegians, has taken to Valentine’s Day in a big way, surprising parties like the Shiv Sena, the MNS and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

And with general elections due in just a few weeks — to be followed later by state assembly elections — political parties including the saffron ones are reluctant to alienate any section of the electorate.

The anti-SRS agitation gained momentum after a group of young women netizens launched the ‘Consortium of pub-going, loose and forward women,’ on social networking site Facebook; they are busy collecting ‘pink chaddis’ (panties) to be sent to Mutalik and his cohorts on Valentine’s Day.

Members of Hindutva outfits are usually dubbed ‘chaddi-wallahs’ for the ‘khaki’ shorts worn by cadres of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the parent body of saffron organisations.

About 25,000 women have signed up for the ‘pinky chaddi’ campaign of the Consortium.

Even the Mumbai Press Club is hosting a Women for Excellence (WE) bash on Friday, urging women rings journalists to “don some pink, turn up for the bash and let the Ram Sene turn red.”

nithin@khaleejtimes.com