Aids awareness event in New Delhi, India:

A kiss is a kiss is a kiss, right? Not in India. A seemingly innocent kiss at an aids awareness event planted on the cheek of Celebrity Big Brother winner from India, Shilpa Shetty, by Richard Gere has both of them in hot water with Indian morality police. Gere and Shetty have been charged for the public display, although Gere’s arrest warrant has been temporarily suspended.
The judge ordered Shetty to appear in his court May 5, saying she did nothing to resist the kiss, which he called "highly sexually erotic." "The complaints are a complete abuse of the due process of law," her lawyer was quoted as saying by the Reuters agency.
Under Indian law, a person convicted of public obscenity faces up to three months in prison, a fine, or both.
How can the country that gave the world the Kama Sutra be so prudish? It's a longstanding cliché to note that India has produced both the world's most famous guide to love and erotic pleasure and some of the most conservative social rules on kissing in public. That paradox was on display once again this week in the firestorm that swept India following a seemingly innocent celebrity kiss on the cheek at an AIDS-awareness event by Mr. Gere.
RICHARD GERE QUOTES:
“Kissing the girl on the cheek was nothing. It was an AIDS event for truck drivers. It was the largest truck depot in South Asia. They were climbing on their trucks cheering. We went and had dinner afterwards and nobody said a word about this.”
“There is a very small right-wing conservative party and they are the moral police in India and they do this quite often. I don’t know if anyone has gone to jail, but a case like this usually goes to a reputable court and is thrown out.”
"What is most important to me is that my intentions as an HIV/AIDS advocate be made clear, and that my friends in India understand that it has never been, nor could it ever be, my intention to offend you," Gere said in statement issued by the Heroes Project, an organization the actor co-founded to combat AIDS in India.
"What is most important to me is that my intentions as an HIV/AIDS advocate be made clear, and that my friends in India understand that it has never been, nor could it ever be, my intention to offend you," Gere said in statement issued by the Heroes Project, an organization the actor co-founded to combat AIDS in India.
"I would hope that the media could now end the circus around this episode and dedicate its positive resources and expertise to the eradication of HIV/AIDS and other preventable diseases," Gere said. "That's what's really important here."
Gere said Shetty was not to blame for the incident."I've felt terrible that she should carry a burden that is no fault of hers," he said.
I’m with Richard on this one. This is only a bogus media grabbing attempt by far to far right, far right zealots. But Richard please no more kissing in public in India. Those far right conservatives may behead you next time. Remember the Dalai Lama lives in Dharamsala, northern India, Mr. Gere. Seek his advice before you go around kissing women in public in India.
Yours truly Dog: