The latest ruling by the Supreme Court of India has ruled out the 2009 Delhi High Court’s Decision in favor of the Indian LGBT community. The decision has stirred divided opinions from different thinking classes of the Indian society. While the controversial decision has incited outrage among the Gay Right Activists resulting in public display of protesting feats, another large section of people including many Social and Religious bodies have expressed their support towards this decision. We approached a few students of FIIB to give their views – Do you think that the Supreme Court’s ruling that the gay sex illegal and punishable is justified? Here is what they had to say-
Ravi Kumar explains why he agrees- “India is a great mix of cultural diversity. We should be proud of our rich ancestral heredity. Do we really need to follow the Western Culture where arguably one out seven persons is gay? Are we scared of our cultural diversity? Permitting the Gay culture is going to disturb the social structure of India. The Gay people are a social stigma on the great Indian social life. Isn’t it obvious that such kind of a sanction would disturb the family system of India? Nature has no plans for the same sex indulgence. Since breeding and multiplication is not possible between two persons of the same gender, it is a violation of nature’s laws to allow this kind of conduct. Even if this has to be practiced, it should be committed behind closed doors.”
Priyanka Singh, on the other hand, explains why she was disappointed- “This is clearly a blow on our civic rights that is going to cripple the Right to freedom we should be entitled to! It is not only a setback to the LGBT community but also to the entire Human Race as a whole. The Right to liberty has been incorporated in our Constitution with the objective to provide equal status to all kinds of citizens. When other parts of the world are showing liberal and progressive steps by accepting the concept of open LGBT existence in the society, our country is definitely going back by a century with this decision by the Supreme Court. Interference into an individual’s personal life should not be an affair of the State. Should we work towards maintaining that so called “Balance of Nature” at the cost of our Happiness?”
The poll at FIIB indicated that 80% of the members were unhappy with ruling while 20% were satisfied. We now wait to see if the Supreme Court is going to re-amend its verdict or not at times to come!
(The article has been written by a member of Corporate Communication team at Fortune Institute of International Business-FIIB, but the views in the article are that of the students and do not reflect the views of the Institute. The article is a part of the FIIB Debate Series that is conducted regularly on the topics relevant to significant current affairs)