Happy Fundamentalist Valentine

To my very great sadness I missed the chance to blog about the most important Hindu fundamentalist extravaganza of the year while I had my nose buried in a pile of news stories. But luckily the good people at BoingBoing and Security Matters were one step ahead of me when they recorded the latest--and greatest--attacks on Valentine's Day yet.

Sure your remember last year how Shiv Sena got their pink and heart embossed panties up in a bunch over the the sale of valentines day cards in Varanasii and they burned down a couple card carrying stores. Well yesterday they struck again, this time in Jaipur.

In Rajasthan capital Jaipur, Bharatiya Kamgar and Students' Federation of India, organisations affiliated to the Shiv Sena and CPI-M respectively, said they would "blacken the faces" of those making public displays of affection. Another group, Sanskriti Bachao Samiti, said teams of youth would move around college and university campuses to "detect couples abusing public places". [via BoingBoing and Bruce Sterling]

But perhaps even more amusing were the attacks on valentines day floats in Madya Pradesh.

A 'rath' (decorated vehicle) prepared by the protesters, mainly activists of the Dharam Sena, for "forcibly marrying couples found celebrating Valentine's Day" was seized in Jabalpur, Additional Superintendent of Police Manohar Verma told PTI.

It is a sad day when Hindu fundamentalists get upset over forced marriages. I guess they prefer the term "arranged marriage". But please do tell me what a forced marriage on a valentines day float consists of? I have a picture of a many armed blue cupid grabbing young men and women willy-nilly and dragging them around a sacred fire.