Spitting Into the Wind

Actor Richard Gere has sent Indians into a spin after he twirled Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty in his arms, arched over and kissed her several times on the cheek at an event in New Delhi last week to promote AIDS awareness among Indian truckers.

Groups of men had burned and kicked straw effigies of Richard and Shilpa in sporadic protests across the country after newspapers published the picture of the kiss on their front pages and TV channels aired visuals of the event. Hindu vigilante groups saw it as an outrage against her modesty and an affront to Indian culture.

A court ordered his arrest after the lawyer who instigated the arrest described the kiss as an obscene act in public. Richard has been found guilty of violating Indian laws against public obscenity. The "Pretty Woman" heart-throb can be sent to jail for up to three months or fined or both for the crime if he is arrested. He is not in India now but can be held if he visits the country again.

Shilpa, the winner of the "Celebrity Big Brother" reality TV show in Britain this year, had said the kiss may have gone a "little overboard" but it was not obscene and the protests made India look regressive.

What started out as a harmless peck on the cheek has turned into a media circus. Richard said it was not his intention to offend anybody and described the charity event as an evening of celebrating courageous people associated with the fight against HIV/AIDS in India, which has the world's highest HIV caseload.

The fact that this modest woman won the British Big Brother show seems a contradiction in terms, as well as the fact that a kiss would stir outrage in the country, whereby the fact that they have the highest HIV caseload does not.