On Saturday, scores of protestors dressed in wedding attire gathered at the Delhi office of the Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha to challenge the right-wing outfit to make good on its threat to get couples married if they indulged in public displays of affection on Valentine’s Day. The couples, accompanied by a wedding band, called out for priests to marry them. However, things didn't go as planned. The police intervened and detained most of them.


Before they were taken into custody, they waved signs mocking the Mahasabha’s insistence on forcing its version of “Indian culture” on everyone else.



However, it soon became clear that the police weren't going to let the spectacle get very far.



“We just started singing songs and shouting slogans but police started cracking down on us,” said Akhil Kumar, one of the protesters. “More than three buses of people were detained at the Parliament Street police station just for protesting and singing songs of love.”

Another protester who requested anonymity said that even the musicians weren’t spared. “Even though Mahasabha leader Swami Om Ji who had threatened to kill Arvind Kejriwal is walking free there, the police were cracking down on us,” he said.

A musician from the band Delhi Sultanate was detained but immediately posted a video of the events on Facebook.

 

In another video, police personnel can be seen claiming that the protesters "didn't take appropriate permissions". As a result, the authorites offered to ferry them to Jantar Mantar, the designated site for demonstrations in the capital.


Even as the protests were halted, Delhi’s young people are in no mood to give up. “We will continue to come here every day until they stop forcing their notions of culture down our throats,” said Aritra Mukherjee, who was in the crowd. “We plan to be here all day until the police releases everyone.”





Here's a Vine video posted by one of the participant showing the police detaining the demonstrators.