Get it straight

Watch the governments uncomfortable jig around the issue of decriminalising gay sex

Watch the governments uncomfortable jig around the issue of decriminalising gay sex

When the question of reading down Section 377 a broad set of unnatural sexual offences that included consensual gay sex as well as bestiality and paedophilia was being argued in the Delhi high court,the government spoke in many voices. The home ministry argued that excising the section would open the floodgates of delinquent behaviour,while the health ministry took a public health stand,framing it in terms of AIDS intervention. The high court decisively rejected the home ministrys argument,and spoke up for gay rights,citing the principle of inclusivity. Apparently unaware that things had changed,Assistant Solicitor General P.P. Malhotra launched into the same absurd arguments that had been presented before the high court. Though fellow ASG Mohan Jain intervened and told the bench that these views did not reflect the Centres,and even after the home ministry had issued its own disclaimer,Malhotra plodded on about the immorality of homosexuality.

The home ministry clarified that it would abide by the cabinet decision not to contest the high courts decision,in language leached of any commitment to the issue. MHA conveyed this decision to the attorney general,MHA has not taken any position on homosexuality and has not given any instruction apart from conveying the decision of the Cabinet.

Why is the government weaselling around the question,instead of actively defending the rights of homosexual citizens to not be harassed by the state? At a depressing,pragmatic level,we know it fears alienating the large section of people who believe otherwise,and it does not want to get involved in a debate about vice and licentiousness with the likes of Baba Ramdev. In many other countries too,the legal battle to decriminalise homosexuality has been met with intellectual confusion and emotional recoil. However,the moral misgivings of one section of the population is not enough to constrict the rights of other citizens,to allow the state to reach into their intimate lives and force them to deny loving who they love a far more significant matter,for most,than even the right to vote freely. Thats why the Delhi high court had held that Section 377 violated the fundamental right to life and liberty and the right to equality as guaranteed by the Constitution. The government should have the clarity and courage to say that.