Bhopal:
Condoms are against family values and lingerie must be kept under wraps. The Saffron moral police is out in Bhopal tearing down posters, knocking down displays and decorously offering clothes to show-window mannequins that turned up in undergarments.
Members of the Sanskriti Bachao Manch, an offshoot of the BJP-affiliated Bajrang Dal, tore down condom ads saying they were against family values and ordered shopkeepers and traders dealing in lingerie to ''not hang lingerie in public.'' (Watch: Shopkeepers resist moral police)
Marching down the New Market area, the activists raised slogans and issued an ultimatum to the shopkeepers, giving them five days to comply or watch their wares go up in flames in a bonfire. They warned that undergarments must be boxed and kept away.
The activists were apparently inspired by Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who had ordered the removal of the poster of a local spa in front of a girls college that showed a semi-clad woman in a chocolate bowl. (Watch: Chief Minister says no to spa hoarding)
"If I see something wrong, it is my duty to protest, to remove it. I saw such a hoarding in front of my daughters' college yesterday which cannot be termed acceptable in any way. That is why I instructed that it should be removed immediately, " Chouhan said.
''Obscene ads will not be allowed in Madhya Pradesh. I have asked concerned officers to prepare new rules that will filter out obscene material in advertising,'' he said.
With this Bhopal now has something common with Goa. The coastal state has already banned ads with bikini-clad women to promote the state as a family holiday destination. (Read: Bikini babes banned from Goa tourism ads)
There is yet another thing common between the two states that both figure in the top ten list of sex crimes in the country. Perhaps it is this ground reality that the state governments would be much better off addressing.
Members of the Sanskriti Bachao Manch, an offshoot of the BJP-affiliated Bajrang Dal, tore down condom ads saying they were against family values and ordered shopkeepers and traders dealing in lingerie to ''not hang lingerie in public.'' (Watch: Shopkeepers resist moral police)
Marching down the New Market area, the activists raised slogans and issued an ultimatum to the shopkeepers, giving them five days to comply or watch their wares go up in flames in a bonfire. They warned that undergarments must be boxed and kept away.
The activists were apparently inspired by Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who had ordered the removal of the poster of a local spa in front of a girls college that showed a semi-clad woman in a chocolate bowl. (Watch: Chief Minister says no to spa hoarding)
"If I see something wrong, it is my duty to protest, to remove it. I saw such a hoarding in front of my daughters' college yesterday which cannot be termed acceptable in any way. That is why I instructed that it should be removed immediately, " Chouhan said.
''Obscene ads will not be allowed in Madhya Pradesh. I have asked concerned officers to prepare new rules that will filter out obscene material in advertising,'' he said.
With this Bhopal now has something common with Goa. The coastal state has already banned ads with bikini-clad women to promote the state as a family holiday destination. (Read: Bikini babes banned from Goa tourism ads)
There is yet another thing common between the two states that both figure in the top ten list of sex crimes in the country. Perhaps it is this ground reality that the state governments would be much better off addressing.
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