BJP using LS majority to thwart Bill on gays: Tharoor

Congress member Shashi Tharoor on Friday blamed the BJP for using its “brute majority” in the Lok Sabha to thwart his second attempt in three months to introduce a private member’s Bill to decriminalise homosexuality.

Tharoor said it was “religious bigotry” of the ruling party that had disallowed discussion on his private Bill to amend the “colonial era” Section 377 of the IPC, which criminalises homosexuality, adding that the Parliament was a place for open debate on all issues.

He used the opportunity to voice his anguish while moving another Bill on the Rights of Transgender Persons when the House was transacting Private Members’ Business.

A few minutes before, the Lok Sabha, for the second time in three months, voted against the introduction of Tharoor’s IPC (Amendment) Bill 2016 to amend Section 377 of the IPC. Tharoor said it was “a low in the proud annals of Indian democracy” where “brute majority prevailed over the rights of a member” to bring the measure.