AAP manifesto to champion gay rights

In a significant championing of gender justice and gay rights, the 16-month-old Aam Admi Party (AAP) will favour decriminalisation of homosexuality in its much-awaited manifesto for the Lok Sabha polls, party sources said.

The manifesto will be released later this week.

"The party supports the high court's decision on consensual gay sex. We will be mentioning it in the manifesto," a senior AAP leader who did not wish to be named told IANS.

The Supreme Court last year struck down the 2009 verdict of the Delhi High Court, which decriminalised homosexuality. The apex court judgment was decried by the liberal intelligentsia and the significant LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) community.

According to the AAP leader the thinking in the party is that Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) should be amended as it has become anachronistic.

"In our manifesto we will promise that the party favours amendments in the section so that homosexuals could live without fearing police action," the leader said.

Besides favouring consensual gay sex, the party will in the party's manifesto talk in detail on gender justice and social justice.

The party also wants appointments of the chairmen of women's commissions and members of the National Human Rights Commission to be transparent. The issue will also be detailed in the manifesto, the leader added.

"The committee which is looking after the party's manifesto has almost done the work. The party will launch its manifesto within a week. We are giving final touches to the manifesto," the leader told IANS.

The party, which got 28 seats in last year's Delhi assembly polls and governed for 49 days, will also highlight the need for Jan Lokpal Bill that aims to curb corruption at high places.

The minority government of AAP fell after the combined Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislators "defeated" AAP's attempts to introduce the bill in the Delhi assembly on Feb 14. AAP leader and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal resigned over the issue.

The leader said another important feature in the manifesto will be internal and external security of the country. The party has also focused on foreign policy as part of its aim to project itself as a national party rather than a regional party.