Love that Kills

A few hours ago, I was catching up on my usual dose of news on the telly. As the images floated by, there was one that fixed/foxed me. It showed a helpless policeman in Bangalore being mercilessly beaten up by an angry mob. The man, as the channel informed, succumbed to his injuries later in hospital. This mob was ‘mourning’ the death of an icon of Karnataka – Rajkumar. What an incredible (sic) show of grief – absurd and irrational, beyond the furthest realm of logic. As yet another Great Indian Spectacle (?) unfolded before my eyes, I was reminded of another incident a few months back, though completely unrelated to this one. That involved a few lovers in Meerut, who were slapped right and left by the police for merely holding hands, apparently. In this case, our law enforcers willingly doubled up as cultural guardians against some innocent youngsters. They even called mediapersons to the spot, to record their (un)holy act on camera and present their own version of a ‘sting operation’. But, in the events in Bangalore, the police were armed with nothing save lathis. Not even once did they open fire on the crowd, so that civilian casualties would be at a minimum.

All this represents the lopsided nature of law enforcement in our country. But more importantly, it shows another phenomenon – love that kills (or hurts). In both the instances, the cause can be identified thus – misperceived and skewed notions of love and affection in our society. Fans of a superstar of yesteryears go on the rampage with impunity when dies a natural death (imagine what would have happened if Veerappan had killed him) – to ‘mourn’ the loss. The result – India’s ‘Silicon Valley’ loses business, and face for a couple of days. Damage to the public order is incalculable, moreover. On the other hand, what kind of damage can be done to the public order by a few lovers holding hands in a park? Hard to imagine, really. Well, ‘Western culture is bad for the health of India’s youth’ – the cultural czars say. Interestingly, some time back, Bangalore also witnessed its own share of cultural chauvinism – protecting the Kannadigas against ‘foreigners’ – with the demonstrations being led by none other than Rajkumar himself!

At this moment, India is the land of milk and honey for MNCs. So, it might not be wrong to guard against the free gifts they bring, along with the dollars. But, shouldn’t we set our own house in order first? It is high time we had clear and mature concepts on how we identify with love. If love and its display are natural human emotions, how can they have geographical tags? The point is to develop a rational approach to love. Neither should we go overboard with its display (destructively or crudely) nor do we need to seal it off hermetically from the imagination. Love and be loved……..but, be a little bit wise.