Oye Romeo! The Perils Of Moral Policing

The clampdown on freedom has hit a new low. Friendship, romance and everything in between is suspect as UP’s young men scurry for cover from anti-Romeo squads

- DAMAYANTI DATTA

Disturbing visuals and news reports of the police rounding up young men on mere suspicion are coming out of Uttar Pradesh. Within three days of Yogi Adityanath taking over as the 21st chief minister of UP on March 19, crack teams of the police, ingeniously named anti-Romeo squads, created to rid public places of ‘eve-teasers’—an Indian euphemism for street harassment—have grabbed the nation’s attention.

Not just. In an argumentative India, it’s the latest talking point, triggering debates and polarising public opinion. At the centre of it are two conflicting narratives, explains social psychologist Sudhir Kakar. One: girls and young women need protection from street harassment. The other is of choice: that young women and men have the right to choose who they want to be with, how and when, not the state. And the two are in deep conflict.

YOGI’S WISH

“At no point in a woman’s life should she enjoy autonomy. In childhood, she is to be governed by her father. In youth, by her husband. In the autumn of life, by her sons.”

—Manusmriti, 1st century BC

Some 1,800 years after Manu the law-giver codified that triad of maxims for Hindu women, the UP government has added the fourth: between childhood and adulthood, a woman must be guarded by the state. And the man behind putting the ancient idea to practice is none other than CM Yogi Adityanath.