Lovers ignore protests, celebrate Valentine’s Day

It was a day to rejoice for lovers, who impressed their soon-to-be-better halves with some attractive gifts to mark the occasion, amid some protests by some fringe Hindu outfits. 

In the marina beach, police were seen patrolling the area and warned some couples when they tried to go ‘overboard’. 

While the activists of some outfits, including the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) celebrated the occasion by distributing sweets to couples on the Marina Beach front, some of the Hindu outfits conducted weddings between ‘dogs’ and ‘goats’ in the city, including workers of the Hindu Munnani and Hindu Makkal Munnani, to stoutly oppose the celebrations, alleging that the tradition and culture were being spoiled. 

In a symbolic protest to the V-day fete, activists of the Muslim outfit Tamil Nadu Towheed Jamath distributed pamphlets condemning the celebrations. 

Similar, events like ‘marriage’ between two dogs and between a male dog and a female goat were also organised by Hindu outfits in Kanyakumari district and in other parts of the State.

While ‘solemnising’ a marriage between a dog and goat at Gobchettipalayam in Erode district, the Hindu Munnani named the female dog as “beautiful’ and the male goat ‘handsome’ as a mark of protest. 

Apart from adorning them with a golden ring as part of the marriage, they took the ‘newly-wed couple’ in a procession and shouted slogans denouncing the V-day celebrations. 

However, the celebrations received thumbs-up from an NGO, Doctors’ Association for Social Equality (DASE), which honoured inter-caste and inter-religious married couples at an event held in the city. 

Several couples, who had made it to the function, were honoured by presenting them shawls and a certificate. 

DASE state general secretary, GR Ravindranath said the Central and the State Governments should encourage inter-caste and inter-religious marriages and provide them economic and social security. 

Meanwhile, in Puducherry, Valentine’s Day celebrations turned out to be a low-key affair.