By IANS,
Bangalore : Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa Tuesday warned against “moral policing” on Valentine’s Day Feb 14 and promised security to those celebrating the day.
The warning followed threats by pro-Hindu outfit Sri Rama Sene (army of Lord Rama) that it would, like last year, oppose Valentine’s Day celebrations.
“Action will be taken against those indulging in acts of moral policing,” Yeddyurappa told reporters here.
“Security will be in place on Valentine’s Day across the state. We will ensure a free and fair atmosphere,” he asserted.
The Sri Rama Sene, which earned notoriety in January 2009 by attacking women in a pub in the coastal town of Mangalore and later threatened to get couples celebrating Valentine’s Day forcibly married, has said it would oppose the celebrations this year too.
Sene head Pramod Mutalik, however, has not spelt out details of the agitation or activities planned by his men on that day.
He said in Belgaum in north Karnataka Monday that his outfit had requested schools and colleges not to allow the celebrations.
The Mangalore pub attack had evoked nation-wide condemnation.
The Sene’s threat of getting couples married also fizzled out in the face of civil society organisations and all political parties decrying the threat.
The Sene has little support in Karnataka but Mutalik manages to grab headlines by periodic strong statements on religious conversion, terrorism, and threat to Hinduism from western culture and on occasions like Valentine’s Day.