'Love is not crime,' Rajasthan police tweet after law against honour killings

"Love is not a crime." The Rajasthan police are trying to get this across with a little help from the cult classic Mughal-e-Azam. Days after the state assembly passed a bill proposing up to life imprisonment for honour killings, the police have begun tweeting the message.

The tweets carry a couple of stills from the movie that starred Prithivraj Kapoor as Akbar and Dilip Kumar as his rebellious son Salim, who fell in love with court dancer Anarkali, played by Madhubala. Akbar orders her to be entombed alive, but in a last-minute change of heart he arranges for her escape. Or so the story goes.

"Be warned, the days of Mughal-e-Azam are over," the police tweet says in Hindi. It then spells out the punishment for honour killing under the new law. "Because love is not a crime," it adds.

The poster tweeted by the police also carries a line from a song in the 1960 movie, sung by a defiant Anarkali in the Mughal emperor's court: "Jab pyar kiya to darna kya" (Why be afraid when you are in love)". The reason why no one should be scared is because of the anti-honour killing law, it says.

B L Soni, the additional director general of CID (Crime Branch), said the social media campaign was for creating awareness about the legislation. "Our social media team is very creative and posts such interesting tweets to catch people's attention. The tweet has received a good response," he told PTI.

The Rajasthan Prohibition of Interference with the Freedom of Matrimonial Alliances in the Name of Honour and Tradition Bill, 2019 was passed on Monday. PTI SDA SOM ASH

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