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Hindu hardliners issue warning against Valentine
 Hardline Hindus burned Valentines Day cards on the eve of the years most romantic day and warned couples across India against getting too amorous over a foreign festival that corrupts traditional values, police said. Saint Valentines Day has become increasingly popular in India in recent years, a trend led by retailers who do healthy business selling heart-shaped balloons and fluffy teddy bears. But the growing popularity of the day in officially secular, but mainly Hindu India has also sparked protests which have sometimes turned violent. On Monday, dozens of sword-wielding Hindu activists used loudspeakers in the central city of Bhopal to ask couples to stay indoors on Tuesday. We oppose it (Valentines Day) tooth and nail because the concept has come from the West and through it an attempt is being made to spoil Indian culture, said Devendra Rawat, a spokesman for radical Hindu outfit Bajrang Dal in the city. Our teams will visit parks frequented by boys and girls and teach them a lesson. In Mumbai activists of the Shiv Sena, a right-wing pro-Hindu political party, on Sunday vandalised a gift shop. The activists said they would also target hotels and restaurants that offered special romantic deals on Tuesday. Posted by: Fred 2006-02-14 |
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