Government talks consensus after religious rap

Announce in haste and recant at leisure. The UPA Government’s penchant for making grandiose announcements without doing the necessary groundwork is beginning to rebound on its ministers. First it was HRD minister Kapil Sibal who drew flak and now it’s the turn of the new Union law minister Veerappa Moily.

His plans to amend laws that penalise homosexuality have roused the ire of religious groups, forcing the government and the party to backtrack.

“This is an issue that needs to be debated widely. We will consult religious groups before reviewing the law. Nothing will be done in a hurry,” Moily said.

Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said, “There is a need for more debate inside and outside Parliament and consensus on the issue.” Congress spokesman Shakeel Ahmad said, “We’ll take a view once consultation is over.”

A number of religious outfits reacted in anger to Moily’s promise of repealing the law, saying it amounted to sanctifying unnatural sex. “Homosexuality is an offence under Shariat and haraam in Islam. The government should not repeal or tamper with Section 377,” Maulana Abdul Khalik Madarsi, deputy vice chancellor, Darul Uloom Deoband, said.

Articulating the Catholic viewpoint, father Babu Joseph said, “It is not a natural form of communion and not in the natural order of things. Decriminalising such an act would amount to encouraging such a communion”.

The VHP was more vehement in its criticism, saying “homosexuality was against Indian culture and will result in the outbreak of all kinds of diseases”. Significantly, the RSS was muted in its response. “The government’s priorities are wrong. Instead of tackling poverty, they are concentrating on such issues,” an RSS functionary said.

Incidentally, the 15th Law Commission, headed by former SC judge BP Jeevan Reddy, while in its 172nd report on review of rape laws had recommended that no sexual intercourse between adults, whether heterosexual or otherwise, should be penalised unless it was non-consensual. It even recommended deleting of Section 377 as homosexuality could not be treated as an offence.