news details |
|
|
| Azad cautions as gay activism picks up | | | AGENCIES
New Delhi, June 29: Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and Congress today adopted a cautious approach to the demand for abolition of section 377 of IPC, which makes gay and lesbian relations illegal, and stressed the need for a wider consultation with religious leaders, civil society members and debate in Parliament before a final decision could be taken.
Azad said section 377 concerned the religious and cultural aspect and public health, so a wider consensus must be arrived before a final decision could be taken on the issue.
Azad, along with Home Minister P Chidambaram and Law Minister Veerappa Moily, has been asked by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to deliberate and arrive at a consensus on repealing section 377. The Delhi High Court has also asked the Centre to resolve the matter. Stating that he had no personal opinion on the issue, Mr Azad said a wider debate was necessary among the public and Parliament before a final opinion could be made about the demand raised to repeal the ''demeaning and criminalising'' section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), to make homosexuality legal. Congress spokesman Shakeel Ahmad also voiced similar opinion, saying wide ranging discussion between Central ministers, with religious leaders, social activists and civil society must be undertaken by the government before taking a final decision. He said the government is taking an initiative and hoped that it would try to arrive at a consensus.
In the Second Queer Pride 2009, celebrated in Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore, gay and lesbians have come out in the open demanding repeal of the law drafted by Lord Macaulay in 1860. They are hopeful as Home Minister P Chidambaram has recently described Section 377 as an ''absurdity in the present day'' and expressing his ministry's willingness to repeal the provision.
However, repealing Section 377 has been a contentious issue in India with religious bodies strongly opposing the move, saying that it would lead to ''anarchy'' in society. Earlier, previous Health and Family Welfare Minister Abumoni Ramadoss was supporting the abolition of this ''discriminatory'' provision, while then Home Minister Shivraj Patil was opposing it in the Delhi High Court, where the matter is pending on a Public Interest Litigation filed by the Naz Foundation. The demand for the repeal is based on the ground that the ban prevents gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people, from having access to HIV/AIDS treatment and is hence, discriminatory.
Another contention was that describing people with ''different sexual preferences'' as criminals was a violation of
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
