The present political dispensation ruling India is working overtime to wreak havoc with personal laws of religious minorities. Brute majority in Parliament will be used to crush aspirations of even the newly accepted and recognized minority community – to wit the sexual/sexuality minorities numbering up to hundred million as per Supreme Court judgement of 2018 in the case of Navtej Singh Johar & others Versus Union of India.
It is no coincidence that the emergence
of Indian gay issues in 1991 was followed by the demolition of Babri Masjid in
1992 accompanied by pan India anti-Muslim violence. Again, the sustained campaign
for ‘Gay Manifesto, 1991’ – with the issue of same-sex marriage reaching a
critical point – is being scuttled by forcing a ‘modern Uniform Civil Code.’ Two
birds are being killed with one stone.
Both the religious minorities and the
sexual/sexuality minorities should join hands to resist this move and press for
a democratic and all inclusive Uniform Civil Code. As in India, neighbouring
Nepal has faced a clamour and campaign for a Hindu Rashtra. With the arrival of
Maoists and Naxalites in power in Nepal since 2006 the cacophony for a Hindu
Rashtra has been sidelined and gay rights have been included in the newly
drafted Constitution of Nepal. Are rulers in India listening?
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