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Sena and HJM target Valentine's Day gift shops

Shiv Sena activists Tuesday ransacked shops selling Valentine's Day cards and gifts in Bombay and attempted to repeat the same in Delhi even as shops in Lucknow downed shutters following threats from Hindu Jagaran Manch ahead of planned celebrations Wednesday.

The demonstrations were in response to Sena Supremo Bal Thackeray's recent appeal to disrupt Valentine's Day celebrations which "were a western fad morally corrupting the country's youth".

In Delhi, the Sainiks stormed a cards gallery and tried to ransack it and workers warned fast food restaurants, cinemas and amusement parks against organising "uncultured" functions to mark Valentine's Day.

Police arrested party's state executive member Abhimanyu Gulati and another leader Jai Prakash Baghel when they barged into the Archies Gallery in an East Delhi locality.

Activists of Hindu Jagaran Manch forced the closure of some Archies galleries' and gift shops selling Valentine's Day cards in Lucknow.

Authorities in Bombay, Delhi and Lucknow deployed security personnel in strength to ward off possible violent disruption of the celebrations tomorrow.

Meanwhile, the Congress condemned the "cultural fascism" unleashed by the Shiv Sena and the Sangh Parivar on codes for dress and conduct for students and said this was unacceptable in a liberal democracy.

''The new kind of campaign... actions and threats of the cultural police of the Sena and Sangh Parivar are a matter of concern and shame," party spokesman Anand Sharma told reporters.

Describing this as "alarming and nothing short of cultural fascism", he said it had nothing to do with the culture of the land or Hinduism which were both very tolerant.

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