India: 'Romance' takes back seat in Valentine crackdown

School authorities in a northern Indian state have banned exchanges of cards or flowers for Valentine’s Day, trying to prevent what a top administrator called an invasion of “foreign culture”.

Jagdish Gandhi, who heads the City Montessori group of schools in Uttar Pradesh, India’s largest state, has told principals to warn students not to observe Valentine’s Day, and to educate them about the “negative feelings” that can come from close contact between young men and women.