Parliament can right the wrong
14 Dec 2013 4:58 AM IST
Looks like the union cabinet of the UPA government has decided to put forward a rare show of upholding the spirit of the Constitution and its fundamental rights. The opinions aired by the cabinet, especially the finance minister P Chidambaram, and others such as Kapil Sibal, Jairam Ramesh among others, as well as by the top brass of the Congress party, including its president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi, expressing disappointment at the Supreme Court verdict on Section 377, come as a glimmer of hope in the increasingly darkening horizon of shrinking civil liberties in this country. The voice in unison discrediting the SC’s sidelining of the Delhi high court order of 7 July 2009, in effect re-criminalising homosexuality and gay sex as ‘unnatural offence’, ‘carnal intercourse against the order of nature’, is like a straw to the drowning man. Since the Supreme Court had in its judgement effectively passed the buck to Parliament, whether to retain or abolish Section 377 and make a fresh law in its place, the legislature should lap up this rare chance to reclaim its diminishing moral authority over the society at large. That the government has stood firm in its position, which was not to challenge the historic Delhi HC order decriminalising homosexuality and uphold its constitutional validity, and therefore directly criticising the Supreme Court order and branding it as ‘retrograde’, ‘repressive’ and out of step with the changing times, is a commendable development. With the likes of Chidambaram, Sibal and others in the political fraternity such as Shashi Tharoor, Derek O’Brien, Milind Deora and other young politicians strongly condemning the SC verdict, the hopes of not just the gay rights activists but civil society at large have been raised once again.
Since the SC judgement on Section 377 reinstating the archaic 1860 colonial law has not taken into consideration the developments in human understandings of medicine, physiology, psychology and genetics, as well as the theoretical advancements and sophistications of thought that have collectively expanded the ambit of rights, such that of health, expression, environment among others, the union cabinet and the public intellectuals have, very correctly, lambasted it without mincing words. In fact, the icing on the cake of the political fraternity uniting over an issue is the nascent Aam Aadmi Party categorically stating that they are disheartened and disappointed with the SC verdict. This is really a wonderful sign that the politics of alternative, of the democratic and the participative, and the representatives thereof, are not afraid to embrace the rights and issues of the varied members of the citizenry. That the AAP issued an official statement saying that the Delhi HC ruling was landmark and that the SC has erred in overruling that watershed verdict is a sign of a more inclusive politics that is here to stay. It is the reflection of a participatory, democratic and respectful politics of equality and non-discrimination, whether on grounds of class, caste, religion, sex, gender or language. It’s time that the parties unite for a cause that is much greater than their individual pursuits of power and ideological glory. It’s a matter of course correction where the highest institution has gone gravely wrong.
Since the SC judgement on Section 377 reinstating the archaic 1860 colonial law has not taken into consideration the developments in human understandings of medicine, physiology, psychology and genetics, as well as the theoretical advancements and sophistications of thought that have collectively expanded the ambit of rights, such that of health, expression, environment among others, the union cabinet and the public intellectuals have, very correctly, lambasted it without mincing words. In fact, the icing on the cake of the political fraternity uniting over an issue is the nascent Aam Aadmi Party categorically stating that they are disheartened and disappointed with the SC verdict. This is really a wonderful sign that the politics of alternative, of the democratic and the participative, and the representatives thereof, are not afraid to embrace the rights and issues of the varied members of the citizenry. That the AAP issued an official statement saying that the Delhi HC ruling was landmark and that the SC has erred in overruling that watershed verdict is a sign of a more inclusive politics that is here to stay. It is the reflection of a participatory, democratic and respectful politics of equality and non-discrimination, whether on grounds of class, caste, religion, sex, gender or language. It’s time that the parties unite for a cause that is much greater than their individual pursuits of power and ideological glory. It’s a matter of course correction where the highest institution has gone gravely wrong.
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