Eminent journalist Karan Thapar says Adityanath's anti-Romeo squads are causing pain, suffering, injustice, and broken hearts

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Eminent journalist Karan Thapar says Adityanath's anti-Romeo squads are causing pain, suffering, injustice, and broken hearts

by Guest Sun Apr 02, 2017 1:32 pm

I wonder what Shakespeare would make of Yogi Adityanath and the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh? His Romeo and Juliet is the unforgettable story of illicit love. Though it ends in tragedy, their death also represents the triumph of their spirit and the shaming of their families. They may have been thwarted in life but through their suicides their love emerges victorious.

Alas, the Yogi would probably call it love jihad. He would side with the Montagues and Capulets not the teenage lovers. Their romance would not soften his stony heart. Instead, his police would spy on them, intercept their secret notes, eavesdrop on their trysts and prevent their kisses. Cupid is not a deity the Yogi worships. Star-crossed lovers do not evoke his sympathy. In fact, they incur his wrath.

So if the ladies of Lucknow have taken to Shakespeare’s famous lament “O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?” it’s likely to be in vain. The Yogi’s police won’t allow the state’s young men to respond. They do not approve of boys and girls sitting together on benches, meeting surreptitiously in cafes, sneaking off to the movies. Holding hands when the lights go down or snogging in the dark is simply out of the question. The ascetic does not understand the thrill of romance. He cannot imagine the charm of courtship. For him affection, it seems, is literally calf-love.

This, sadly, is the situation that prevails in Uttar Pradesh and it’s a direct, if not inevitable, outcome of the Yogi’s anti-Romeo squads. Heavens what a name! No one would defend what we delicately call eve-teasing but the enthusiasm and persistence with which it’s being battled by the UP police can only lead to injustice, pain and suffering. And broken hearts too!

In the government’s defence UP health minister Siddharth Nath Singh has called it police vigilantism. But this oxymoron is more misleading than disarming. It’s a blatant contradiction. In fact, it’s an attempt at clever obfuscation.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/columns/what-would-yogi-adityanath-make-of-shakespeare-s-romeo-and-juliet/story-nLVotK5V4VMydDdecfcQjM.html

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Eminent journalist Karan Thapar says Adityanath's anti-Romeo squads are causing pain, suffering, injustice, and broken hearts

Eminent journalist Karan Thapar says Adityanath's anti-Romeo squads are causing pain, suffering, injustice, and broken hearts