A buss on the cheek that Nelson Mandela gave to an Indian Muslim actress is the talk of the town. Some Muslims said they were shamed, but others sprang to her defense.
The debate began soon after Indian newspapers published a photograph of the African National Congress leader kissing Shabana Azmi when the award-winning actress presented him with a prize in Cape Town on Nov. 29.Mandela was being given the "Newsmaker of the Year" award on behalf of a South African newspaper.
Azmi, who played a lead role in last year's film "City of Joy," has become well-known in India for her social activism.
Educators, students and even Supreme Court lawyers have gotten involved in the mudslinging over the Cape Town kiss.
India's conservative Hindu and Muslim culture frowns upon kissing in public, and even couples holding hands in public are rare except in big cities. Kissing is forbidden in Indian films.
The exchange of letters in the New Delhi press seemed to reflect the vulnerability that many Muslims feel in India, where they are a 12 percent minority among an 82 percent Hindu population.
"As a true Muslim I am ashamed to come across a photograph in which the Indian Muslim actress is seen publicly kissing Dr. Nelson Mandela," wrote Badrul Islam, of the Aligarh Muslim University, in a letter to The Pioneer newspaper.
"It is an act which is both un-Islamic and un-Indian, for it is not in consonance with our culture," he wrote. "I vehemently and totally disapprove."
"A misunderstood kiss," screamed a rejoinder from another reader. "Mr. Islam, before raising so much hue and cry, should have realized that Mr. Mandela is old enough to be Shabana Azmi's father," wrote Mudit Mittal, a Hindu student.