CPI(M) leaders, be they Bengal-line or Karat-line, are supporting any move to amend Section 377 of IPC and make homosexuality between consenting adults legal.
If withdrawal of support from the UPA government over the Indo-US nuclear deal divided the CPI(M) into Bengal-line and Karat-line, the Delhi high court’s landmark judgement on decriminalising homosexuality has reunited the two.
CPI(M) leaders, be they Bengal-line or Karat-line, are supporting any move to amend Section 377 of IPC and make homosexuality between consenting adults legal.
The CPI, too, welcomed the judgement and said amending Section 377 was the need of the hour. Two other Left Front constituents, the All India Forward Bloc and the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), too, have no objections to the move.
In fact it is learnt that in case of any move in Parliament to amend Section 377, the 15 Left MPs from West Bengal and two from Tripura will vote in favour of the motion.
A senior CPI(M) state committee leader said they are confidant the decision will be no different in case of Left MPs from other states (read Karat line). The party’s opinion in this regard was officially endorsed by CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat, who said his support will support any move to amend Section 377.
He said the Left always supported de-criminalising of homosexuality since the existing law violated human rights. “In fact, our politburo and Rajya Sabha member Brinda Karat was the first to ask the Centre to consider the opinion of activists and groups fighting on this issue. Our outlook on this issue has always been the same,” he said.
He also made an indirect reference to Trinamool Congress supremo and railways minister Mamata Banerjee’s silence on the issue. “She is always silent on any major national issue, unless she gets the anti-Left flavour in it. This is a major social issue and we feel that every party should publicly give their opinion rather than duck it,” he said.
The CPI said the Delhi high court judgement should be viewed from the legal and human-rights angle rather than religious perspective. Party leader D Raja said laws change with the times and Section 377 should be no exception.
Meanwhile, LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual) groups in West Bengal rejoiced at the Delhi high court’s judgement and the political support extended by parties like the CPI(M), CPI and NCP. West Bengal has a LGBT population of around 0.5 million.
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