Ramadoss complains to PM against Patil

Wednesday, October 1, 2008 at 8:10 am

The ministries of health and home have been at loggerheads over the issue of de-criminalisation of homosexuality for a long time now. The Health Ministry wants section 377 of th Indian Penal Code (IPC), which criminalizes homosexuality, dropped. However on the other hand the Home Ministry wants the penal provisions to be retained.

The debate over whether homosexuality should be legalised rages on with no consensus emerging from the Centre on their stand on the issue. The Home Minister has fired yet another salvo at the Home Ministry, which has been overturning his recommendations to scrap the controversial Article 377 of the IPC that declares homosexuality a punishable offence.

Health Minister Ambumani Ramadoss said, “Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil should be more progressive.I will ask for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s intervention once he returns to India. World over, people are accepting homosexuality. The Home Minister should be a lot more sensitive. How can we control physiological feelings of people?”

In this endless debate, the Internal Ministry wars has threatened to deliver a big blow to the gay rights movement in India. The Union Government has also said that it will not scrap the controversial Article 377 of the Indian Penal Code that makes homosexuality a punishable offence in India. The Centre in its arguements presented in the Delhi High Court today (October 1) defended its stand, exposing differences within the government.

The Home Ministry in its defence today submitted in the Delhi High court. The minsitry said, “The act which has been glorified in the past like dowry, child marriage , domestic violence- widow remarriage have now been brought under the perview of criminal justice.Therefore changes in public tolerance of activities lead to campaign to either criminalise some behavior or decriminalise others.There is no such tolerance to the practice of homosexuality in the Indian society.”

Ramadoss earlier said that ignoring the gay community will weaken India’s fight against HIV. “At present, any doctor treating a gay for HIV can be jailed. In one instance, a social worker languished in jail for nine months for trying to treat a gay HIV infected person. I fully support protecting children against sexual abuse and treating paedophiles as criminals. But homosexuality must be legalised specially from the point of health issues.” he said.

Ramadoss’s comments came a day after the government asked the Delhi High Court to ignore the views of its health ministry on removing a penal provision against homosexuality. However, the additional solicitor general PP Malhotra said that it is for the court to decide over this impending issue. He said, “It does not matter what the minister, A Ramadoss, and the ministry’s affidavit says. It is for the court to decide on the issue.”

( This post is from an independent writer. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not endorsed by APakistanNews.Com.)

Ramadoss complains to PM against Patil

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