'Now that the Union home minister has strongly come out against the barbarity of honour killings, time has come to translate this into action,' politburo member Sitaram Yechury said.
The CPI(M) today asked the government to make laws to declare honour killings ordered by 'khap' (caste) panchayats as illegal, saying that these have flourished due to "active connivance" of the local elected representatives, administration and the police.
"Despite the demand that laws be made declaring khap panchayats illegal and a separate law be passed on honour
killings, the central government has so far not taken any
steps to do so.
"Now that the Union home minister has strongly come out against the barbarity of honour killings, time has come to translate this into action," Politburo member Sitaram Yechury said in an editorial in the party organ 'People's Democracy'.
Seeking "firm and deterrent action" against the offenders whenever such incidents occur, he said, "Political parties
like the Congress and the INLD have refused to take a stand
against khap panchayats as they do not want to antagonise the
dominant caste and their support base".
"It is the responsibility of political parties to stand up for the right of young women and men to marry according to their choice," he said, adding "for too long, this feudal outlook and barbarous practices have prevailed just kilometers outside the borders of the Capital of India".
"They have flourished with the active connivance of the police, the administration and the elected representatives," Yechury said.
Noting that a Karnal court recently sentenced five persons to death for killing a couple, he said such honour killings were widespread in Haryana, Western UP, Punjab and in varying degrees in some other parts.
Jat caste panchayats in Haryana have been administering "a
medieval form of justice" by issuing diktats including the
death sentence on young men and women who violate what they
consider to be the social code.
Such practice was not confined to a single community as reflected in the brutal murder of a Muslim girl Afsana and a Hindu boy Manoj in Meerut district in July last, he said.
Underlying this vicious caste and communal prejudice was the attitude to women, who are viewed as the property of the family, the caste and the community, having no sovereign right over their bodies. Women's chastity for them is a matter of "honour" of the community.
"It is this patriarchal, anti-woman outlook which holds sway, contravening all the constitutional values and rights accorded to women in Republican India," Yechury said.
Observing that CPI(M) and AIDWA have protested these 'khap' panchayat activities, he said all democratic forces should demand adoption of a law against honour killings and illegalise such activities which violated the Constitution.
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