It failed to stop the 'Kiss of Love' campaign at Jhandewalan but Hindu Sena managed to pull the plug on a Radio Mirchi event that had been scheduled for Saturday-Sunday. The radio station had planned to have a 'Kiss of Love Wall' or 'Pyaar ki Deewar' at DLF Place Mall at Saket. Though inspired by the 'Kiss of Love' campaign that began in Kochi, the station's programming head, Akash Banerjee, says it wasn't meant to be a repeat of Jhandewalan but an event to "express solidarity with those demanding right of expression." But it raised the hackles of the self-appointed guardians of public morality.
Radio Mirchi had been promoting its programme on air since Monday. "We got a lot of positive and negative response too. But yesterday, when a team from the event management company went to the mall to set up the fabrications, the mall management told them they couldn't and that the police have told them not to allow it," Banerjee said.
Officials from both the event management company and Radio Mirchi tried to talk to the police but the programme was scuttled in the way these usually are " "unofficially but firmly", as one member of the organizing team put it. Consequently, there's no denial of permission on paper but a whole lot of verbal instructions, which the organizers clearly couldn't disregard. "The police said 'aapke liye problem ho jayegi aur hamare se koi ummeed mat karna'," an organizer said.
Hindu Sena is gloating over it. "I called the station's office in Noida two-three times during the week while they were promoting the event on their channel," said Vishnu Gupta, national president, Hindu Sena, "Then yesterday (Friday) I called the police " the DCP South's office and even Saket thana " to complain. I told them if they didn't take action, we will, in Hindu Sena style. We said the organizers should take care that their campaign doesn't end up doing more damage than good." By Friday, Gupta added, "the police informed us that they had cancelled permission."
(Members of various Hindu right-wing organizations shout slogans as they try to prevent the 'Kiss of Love' campaign in New Delhi on November 8, 2014. )
The police are denying this. "The police arrangement was in place but the event didn't happen. We have no knowledge of why it was cancelled. We didn't stop it," said a senior police officer of south district. Mall authorities don't want to pin it on the cops either and blame the event management company. "They didn't have all the permits," said an official who handles events for the mall, "and it's always the client who gets the permissions." She wasn't, however, able to say exactly which permits were missing.
In response, a representative from the event management company said: "The only permission usually required for such events is music royalty and we weren't using music. Also, the mall management did not advise us about any other permission." Banerjee added: "We weren't asking people to come and kiss each other but just show solidarity. If we can't do that in the national capital, we're heading for very dangerous times."