India: Demonstration in Delhi outside Hindu Mahasabha office against Mahasabha’s diktat

The Times of India

Demonstration outside Hindu Mahasabha office against Mahasabha’s diktat
Manash Pratim Gohain & Suhas Munshi, TNN | Feb 14, 2015, 05.44 PM IST

NEW DELHI: University students, professionals, locals and foreigners leapt over barricades set up by police and held a demonstration outside the office of Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha on Saturday afternoon.

Police had imposed section 144 prohibiting assembly of more than 10 people in the area outside the office and barricaded either ends of Mandir Marg to prevent protesters from reaching Mahasabha's office.

Over 250 people arrived in the area to demonstrate against Mahasabha's diktat, announced a few days ago, to marry any unmarried couples found outside on Valentine's Day. Police said about 225 people were detained for now, and were to be let off by evening.

Protesters came in waves breaking the police's security cordon at either ends of Mandir Marg. At 12.30 in the afternoon the first batch of students gathering near barricades placed at the intersection of Mandir Marg and Peshwa Road broke through and made a dash for Hindu Mahasabha's office. Another batch of protesters followed them to the spot. A few minutes after they began sloganeering police arrived in large numbers and started hauling them in police buses, as onlookers kept a watch from the first floor of Mahasabha's office. One of the banners protesters waved at Mahasabha's office read 'Who the hell are you to stop me. See. I'm here in my streets.'

Student groups from Delhi University and JNU, including the Students Federation of India (SFI) and Jawaharlal Nehru University's Students Union (JNUSU), had organized Saturday's protest a few days ago on Facebook. That's where, a lot of protesters said, they'd come to know about the event. The idea of the protest, which didn't go as planned, was to reach Hindu Mahasabha's office and offer themselves to Hindu priests to be married. People of various sexual minorities also turned up.

Pallav Dev from Kirori Mal College arrived with Riya from Ambedkar University, both looking for partners to get married to. "We arrived here after getting an invite on Facebook. I planned to look for a boy to get married to and my friend Riya planned to look for a girl," said Dev.

Hindu priests outraged by the brazenness of the protesters weren't amused. "This is not our culture. These people don't have the right to do whatever they want. If they go on this Western path, they'll surely end in misery. We can't allow this," said Madhav Shastri, a priest at a temple run by Hindu Mahasabha. Swami Om, who had gathered notoriety for threatening to shoot Kejriwal, didn't leave the place till he saw the back of the last protestor. "We are not going to allow this culture to go on. I will shoot these people who want to procreate outside on roads."