New Delhi: It's an innocuous word, a simple gesture - a kiss is an act used by two people to show that they really care. However, a furore is created whenever celebrities are caught on camera or on public doing the same thing.

Actress Bipasha Basu lip-locking with soccer star, Christiano Ronaldo and actress Shilpa Shetty being passionately kissed by Hollywood actor Richard Gere are all examples of celebrities being speculated by the media and being scrutinsed.

The question that was being debated on CNN-IBN’s show, India 360 was: Should kissing in public be banned in India? On the panel to try and answer the question were actor and TV personality, Pooja Bedi; Editor-In-Chief Outlook magazine, Vinod Mehta; and author and former MP, Praful Goradia.

Also Read: Bipasha Kisses Ronaldo

A kiss, a peck or a very vulgar act - these are three very different acts. Are we as a society confusing these three?

Pooja Bedi squarely put the blame on the shoulder of the media saying that it was the media that was blowing things out of proportion. According to her, whenever celebrities showed affection to each other in such a way, the media would make it a larger than life issue. The media made it seem obscene, vulgar and terrible.

"Kissing is a terrible thing in Islamic fundamentalist countries. India is a country where we revere Lord Krishma who romanced with the gopis in Vrindavan. So kissing is not only an old form but also the most natural form of showing affection," she said.

However, is the media only to be blamed for exaggerating the issue? India is after all a country where a line has to be drawn somewhere between what is acceptable and what some people find offensive. Vinod Mehta who was also a former editor of Debonair, a men’s magazine, said that he had no expert on the subject so he chose to speak as a layman. He said that kissing in India should not be banned, but should be moderately encouraged.

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"What is the whole argument about? Our lives are so grim in any case, we should not take these things so seriously. Everybody is denying everything including the likes of Pratibha Patil and Bhairon Singh Shekhawat. So if Bipasha is denying a lip-lock with Ronaldo, then I believe her. It is a useless debate. The media has many other things to worry about."

However, a kiss between celebrities always sparks off a controversy. A group of people do always revolt in a country like India. An arrest warrant was even issued in the name of Richard Gere.

A tale of a kiss "People in the West hardly look at the people kissing each other because it is so common there. Let’s not add excitement to something that is natural, human and a very important part of human relations," said Goradia.

Bollywood as a film fraternity has grown a lot, but as a civil society do we still feel awkward dealing in matters related to morality?

Bedi who belonged to the film industry said that singer Mika had forced a kiss on item girl Rakhi Sawant. She said that media did a good thing by playing it up as it only sent out a message not to misbehave with women.

Mehta said that if of the Law of Obscenity – Section 284, IPC was practiced then half of the country would be in jail. But he stood firm in his stands saying that kissing in public was still not a serious matter.

However, what about people who date? A couple wants to have a good time on Valentine’s Day but the police catch them as part of some operation called Operation Majnu? Should the media not cover that too? Mehta said that matters like that were very serious but Bipasha being kissed by Ronaldo was not.

"The Page 3 people being in the news for reasons similar to these is just a joke,"Mehta said. Goradia made a point by saying that the discussion was on the guidelines of it being an urban issue. "There are many people living in one small room. Have we ever thought for the privacy of the family? If a couple wants to take a walk and kiss then there is nothing wrong with that," he said.

So should the Shiv Sena and the Bajrang Dal who act as moral police be ignored? Goradia rounded off the discussion by saying that that it was democracy and everybody had right to do what he or she felt like as long as they were in the acceptable norms of civil society.