The country’s top right-wing outfit may not after all consider homosexuality an act of crime. In a positive development, RSS made a progressive statement in support of decriminalizing homosexuality.
According to TheTimes of India (TOI), RSS said that sexual preference is not a crime as long as it does not impinge on the lives of others.
Speaking at the India Today conclave on Thursday, RSS joint general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale said, “Why should RSS have an opinion on homosexuality? It is not a crime as long as it does not affect the lives of others. Sexual preferences are personal issues.”
RSS’ ideological mentor’s progressive statement raises hope that BJP members would change their mind and push the Supreme Court to scrap the colonial era law (Section 377 of IPC) that brands homosexuality a crime.
The top RSS functionary’s comment comes just when the BJP MPs voted out the bill that seeks to decriminalize homosexuality. Congress MP Shashi Tharoor had proposed the bill at the Lok Sabha.
In fact, finance minister Arun Jaitley (and a few other members in BJP) had earlier voiced the support to decriminalize same-sex relationships. He had publicly stated that the Supreme Court’s view on the matter was conservative. But does his opinion matter when the members of the large political spectrum consider the subject a taboo? The party members demonstrated their unanimous disapproval when they voted down Tharoor’s bill.
“When you have millions of people involved in this (gay sex), you can’t nudge them off,” Jaitley had said according to TOI, adding that the Supreme Court had taken a “conservative view”.
The minister also added, “Jurisprudence world over is evolving, I think the judgment was not correct and, probably at some stage, they may have to reconsider.”
In fact, Lok Sabha (where BJP has absolute majority) voted twice against Tharoor’s bill in the last three months.
India is one among the 70 countries that brands homosexuality a criminal offence. Section 377 criminalizes homosexuality as “unnatural” sex with a maximum punishment of up to 10 years in jail even if it is between two consenting adults.
Recently, the Supreme Court referred the curative petition to a constitution bench to review its 2013 order—some consolation for the fighting LGBT community.
