The city of Cochin, on November 2nd, 2014, witnessed the successful execution of our protest known as Kiss of Love, a movement against the fundamentalist and reactionary elements of this country who indulge in moral policing, which has been been a major hindrance to peaceful living and individual freedom in India. We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to all those who supported, promoted and stood by us, thereby making this endeavour a great triumph. We especially thank the student community in various Indian Universities for extending their solidarity to us (the students of University of Hyderabad, IIT-B and IISER-K, at the foremost). A great load of thanks to the media, which took care to report about the protest in an unbiased manner.
When we came up with this completely novel way to protest (at least in Kerala) against the practice of moral policing, we had to face a lot of opposition from many sections of society.
At this important juncture, various political institutions like DYFI, SFI and Youth Congress and their volunteers came forward and declared their support for us. We express our deep thanks to all of you. We would like to express our gratitude to the representatives of the cultural and political movements in Kerala, who brought this issue into the attention of the mainstream media and helped in the development of healthy debates about moral policing and its detrimental effect, especially, V.T. Balram (M.L.A), M.B.Rajesh (M.P), Deen Kuriakose (Youth congress), T.N. Seema (M.P.- Rajyasabha), Kureepuzha Sreekumar (poet), N.S. Madhavan, Anand, Susmesh Chandroth, Zacharia(authors), R. Unni (Script writer) and Joy Matthew (actor, director), T.N Joy (Social activist). Also, special thanks to C.P.I (M) State Secretary, Sri Pinarayi Vijayan, for speaking against the biased actions of the State police against our protesters.
We would also like to use this opportunity to clarify the doubts about the political ideologies of individuals who took part in the Kiss of Love movement, as many assumptions and speculations are being circulated regarding the actual motive behind this.
Firstly, rather than an organisation, Kiss of Love is a wake-up call or a campaign. We are a group of people who respect the Indian Constitution and we only want to protest against injustices by being a part of the same Constitution. We made a group in Facebook to popularise this campaign. The group consisted of people from all walks of life, who supported democracy and also people with varied political affiliations. The only motive of our campaign is to oppose cultural fascism using the democratic methods that are backed by our Constitution. We support and shall continue to support everyone who comes forward to become a part of this movement, but we are not responsible or liable to give replies to questions about their other political beliefs. But at the same time, we would like to register our disappointment and disagreement towards the State Police’s decision to specifically assault some of our supporters on their way back from the Kiss of Love protest venue, irrespective of what their political views are.
Another accusation is that Kiss of Love is a group of Anarchists and Apolitical individuals. A request to those who make such accusations, kindly go and look up the meaning of ‘Anarchy’. The few of us came in front of the violent crowd with trust in the Law enforcement agencies of the state, which would have been impossible if we didn’t believe in law or the state. Similarly, we are not apolitical. We have clear cut politics and that is rooted in the concept of individual freedom. We are against cultural fascism and fundamentalistic ideologies. We are not protesting against the law, rather we are protesting against the lawlessness of moral policing. We are advocating for the basic right of an Indian citizen to be able to move freely in this country, without fear of any kind of breach in individual freedom.
We admit that there have been a few of flaws in the execution of this protest, due to the lack of a structured organisation and also as this protest was organised with the help of social networking and other relatively new media. Even then, we have completely succeeded in presenting our views to the global society. The success of our movement is an example of how Social networking can help in raising awareness about social injustices and bring together people for a common cause. We hope that in future, Kerala would witness even greater protests organised using virtual networking.
We do not have anything against the retrograde communal groups that are opposing us. The fact that they are against us is proof in itself that we are fighting for a just cause. But the war cries that they raised during our protest is actually a cry against the democratic establishment.
The knowledge that the civilised Indian youth are taking up this idea and spreading it is a proud moment for us. We are also proud to be the ones to have first tolled the bell that marks the fall of cultural dictatorship. We also would like to make it clear that we will go forward with the ideas we have put forward and our methods of protest. We wish to decentralize our concept.
We call the millennial generation to come forward and takeover our ideas and spread it in our Universities, cities, public spaces and in the cultural arena and make a difference.
#kissoflove
When we came up with this completely novel way to protest (at least in Kerala) against the practice of moral policing, we had to face a lot of opposition from many sections of society.
At this important juncture, various political institutions like DYFI, SFI and Youth Congress and their volunteers came forward and declared their support for us. We express our deep thanks to all of you. We would like to express our gratitude to the representatives of the cultural and political movements in Kerala, who brought this issue into the attention of the mainstream media and helped in the development of healthy debates about moral policing and its detrimental effect, especially, V.T. Balram (M.L.A), M.B.Rajesh (M.P), Deen Kuriakose (Youth congress), T.N. Seema (M.P.- Rajyasabha), Kureepuzha Sreekumar (poet), N.S. Madhavan, Anand, Susmesh Chandroth, Zacharia(authors), R. Unni (Script writer) and Joy Matthew (actor, director), T.N Joy (Social activist). Also, special thanks to C.P.I (M) State Secretary, Sri Pinarayi Vijayan, for speaking against the biased actions of the State police against our protesters.
We would also like to use this opportunity to clarify the doubts about the political ideologies of individuals who took part in the Kiss of Love movement, as many assumptions and speculations are being circulated regarding the actual motive behind this.
Firstly, rather than an organisation, Kiss of Love is a wake-up call or a campaign. We are a group of people who respect the Indian Constitution and we only want to protest against injustices by being a part of the same Constitution. We made a group in Facebook to popularise this campaign. The group consisted of people from all walks of life, who supported democracy and also people with varied political affiliations. The only motive of our campaign is to oppose cultural fascism using the democratic methods that are backed by our Constitution. We support and shall continue to support everyone who comes forward to become a part of this movement, but we are not responsible or liable to give replies to questions about their other political beliefs. But at the same time, we would like to register our disappointment and disagreement towards the State Police’s decision to specifically assault some of our supporters on their way back from the Kiss of Love protest venue, irrespective of what their political views are.
Another accusation is that Kiss of Love is a group of Anarchists and Apolitical individuals. A request to those who make such accusations, kindly go and look up the meaning of ‘Anarchy’. The few of us came in front of the violent crowd with trust in the Law enforcement agencies of the state, which would have been impossible if we didn’t believe in law or the state. Similarly, we are not apolitical. We have clear cut politics and that is rooted in the concept of individual freedom. We are against cultural fascism and fundamentalistic ideologies. We are not protesting against the law, rather we are protesting against the lawlessness of moral policing. We are advocating for the basic right of an Indian citizen to be able to move freely in this country, without fear of any kind of breach in individual freedom.
We admit that there have been a few of flaws in the execution of this protest, due to the lack of a structured organisation and also as this protest was organised with the help of social networking and other relatively new media. Even then, we have completely succeeded in presenting our views to the global society. The success of our movement is an example of how Social networking can help in raising awareness about social injustices and bring together people for a common cause. We hope that in future, Kerala would witness even greater protests organised using virtual networking.
We do not have anything against the retrograde communal groups that are opposing us. The fact that they are against us is proof in itself that we are fighting for a just cause. But the war cries that they raised during our protest is actually a cry against the democratic establishment.
The knowledge that the civilised Indian youth are taking up this idea and spreading it is a proud moment for us. We are also proud to be the ones to have first tolled the bell that marks the fall of cultural dictatorship. We also would like to make it clear that we will go forward with the ideas we have put forward and our methods of protest. We wish to decentralize our concept.
We call the millennial generation to come forward and takeover our ideas and spread it in our Universities, cities, public spaces and in the cultural arena and make a difference.
#kissoflove
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