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New Delhi - Hollywood star Richard Gere's repeated kisses on Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty's cheeks during an AIDS awareness program for truck drivers in New Delhi have sparked strong protests in several cities across the nation with several Hindu nationalist outfits burning their posters and effigies.
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According to media reports, Hindu activists in Varanasi, Bhopal, Kanpur, Indore, Delhi and Mumbai burnt effigies of Gere and Shetty to give vent to their anger over the actor's act on stage at the program in Delhi, calling it indecent behavior.
In Delhi, Shiv Sena activists converged at Jantar Mantar to express their resentment over the act while in Varanasi, several Shiv Sena and Bande Mataram Sangharsh Samiti activists as well as Muslims took to the streets.
In Mumbai, over 50 Shiv Sena activists converged at the Vashi railway station in Navi Mumbai where the film 'Metro' was being shot and burnt an effigy of Shilpa Shetty and shouted slogans against her, Navi Mumbai Police Commissioner Ramrao Wagh reported.
None of the protests have taken any violent turn, however.
"I understand this (kissing) is his culture, not ours. But this was not such a big thing or so obscene for people to overreact in such a manner," Shetty said, in defence of Gere.
Don't expect the expected from Dibakar Banerjee.
Police in Mumbai said on Sunday they have arrested two men they say were prepari...
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