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NEW DELHI, Thursday (AFP) .Hindu hardliners in India trying to disrupt Valentine's Day festivities have failed to blunt cupid's arrow, with retailers Thursday reporting a massive rush for cards and gifts.

Members of the Hindu right wing party Shiv Sena burnt Valentine cards in various centres this week to protest against what they term an "obscene display" of love.

They also repeated calls for the government to ban Valentine's Day, terming it an assualt on Indian values.

But retailers say lovers remain undeterred and have flocked to shopping centres for cards, gifts and flowers.

Archies, the country's largest chain for cards and gifts, said it had printed around two million Valentine's cards, including 400 new designs -- a 10 percent rise on the previous year.

It expected all to be sold.

"After New Year's cards, Valentine cards are the highest selling and the week preceding February 14 registers the highest sales in the year since sales during New Year are scattered," said Vijayant Chhabra, executive director of Archies.

The company, which has 500 outlets across India, has also introduced special mugs, photo frames and trinkets -- but soft toys remain the favourite.

This news doesn't sit well with Shiv Sena's Delhi chief, Jai Bhagwan Goel, who told AFP 15 teams from his party would crack down on those celebrating the day, with Archies galleries as their prime target.

"Young men get an excuse to gift flowers and obscene cards to women they don't even know. It's because of this that sexual harassment and AIDS are on the rise," Goel said.

The party's working president Udhav Thackeray last week warned of violence against those celebrating the day in Bombay, India's western commercial hub.

"These days teenagers have little inhibition in exhibiting their romantic fantasies even in front of family elders," said Peringamala Aji, Shiv Sena's organising secretary in the southern state of Kerala.

Though the party has played spoilsport on Valentine's Day in northern India for years, this is the first time it has targetted Kerala, the country's most literate state.

The threat seems to have had an impact, with a prominent hotel in capital city Trivandrum already cancelling a planned 'Valentine Night' function.

"We called off the event as we do not want any untoward incident in the hotel premises," said S. Nagappan Nair, a hotel official.

In Agra, renowned internationally as the 'city of love' since heart-broken Moghul emperor Shah Jehan built the Taj Mahal monument in memory of his beloved wife, more than 1,000 activists from another Hindu right wing outfit have warned they will patrol the streets to check the festivities.

Celebrations on Valentine's Day, named after a Christian patron saint for lovers, have become increasingly popular -- and comercialised -- and is now observed in India on a scale that used to be seen only at Hindu festivals.

"Why celebrate Valentine's Day to express love, when you have so many festivals, like Diwali, Eid and Dusshera, in India," said Goel.

In the capital New Delhi, his words have fallen largely on deaf ears, as young men could be seen Thursday at university campuses, heart signs imprinted on their clothes, ready to woo women with roses and stuffed toys.

Most hotels and pubs across metropolitan cities introduce special dinners and celebrations and reams of newspaper supplements carry glossy advertisements for special Valentine's gifts, offers and contests.

The Indian film industry, popularly known as Bollywood, has, meanwhile, timed the release of romantic musicals to coincide with Valentine's Day. 

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Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
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