Press statement - Section 377 must be scrapped

By Dilip -
December 18, 2013
Press statement
‘Section 377 must be scrapped’

We, the undersigned, are shocked by the Supreme Court verdict which, instead of affirming the fundamental constitutional principle of non-discrimination between citizens, criminalises homosexuality. 

We stand with the national and global community of LGBT individuals and organisations, human rights and civil liberties groups, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and democratic governments in damning the regressive ruling which reduces India to a lesser, narrow-minded, intolerant democracy.

We demand immediate action from legislators across the political spectrum for scrapping the obnoxious Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code – a legacy of the colonial era – to decriminalise same sex relations between consenting adults.

We applaud political leaders and parties which have spoken out against the apex court’s ruling. We condemn the shameful support of the latest verdict by leaders from the BJP (including its prime ministerial aspirant) and the Samajwadi Party, and silence on the issue by some other parties.

We call upon religious leaders from different faiths – who had spoken with one voice against the earlier progressive ruling of the Delhi High Court and who are now celebrating the judgment of the Supreme Court – to reflect upon the wise words of Pope Francis: “Who are we to judge?” In his paradigm-shifting interview in September, the Pope has bemoaned the fact the Catholic Church was “obsessed” with the issue of homosexuality. 

We urge the high priests of other religions too to exorcise themselves of the same obsession.

We would like to remind religious leaders that India is a secular democracy, not a theocracy. While the clergy is entitled to its views on what does or does not constitute a sin, it must realise that in a democracy punishments are only prescribed for crimes, not for sins. So they should stop playing god.

We emphatically assert that same sex relations between consenting adults is not a crime and those engaging in it are no less human than heterosexuals. They must be respected as equals. Leave alone their being treated as criminals, any kind of discrimination against them is entirely unacceptable.

SIGNATORIES:
MUMBAI
1.      Javed Anand, Muslims for Secular Democracy
2.      Hasina Khan, Muslim Women’s Rights Network
3.      Nandita Das
4.      Mohammed Zubair Saifi
5.      Noorjehan Safia Naaz, Bhartiya Muslim Mahila Andolan
6.      Irfan Engineer
7.      Vahida Nainar, Women's Research and Action group
8.      Sameera Khan
9.      Anjum Rajabali
10.  Awaaz-e-Niswaan
11.  Sabah Khan -Muslim women's rights Network
12.  P.K. Shajahan, Tata Institute of Social Science
13.  Aquila Khan
14.  Farrukh Waris
15.  Sukla Sen, Committee for Communal Amity (Ekta)
16.  Jyoti Punwani
17.  Vrijendra
18.  Rohini Hensman
19.  Ram Puniyani
20.  Nasreen Fazelbhoy
21.  Atul Tiwari

ALLAHABAD
22.  Zafar Bakht
23.  Shooby Bakht
24.  Anshu Malviya
25.  Utpala Shukla

CHENNAI
26.  Kasim Sait
27.  Kareem Sait
28.  Dr Zaheer Ahmed Sayeed
29.  Farhan Shaikh
30.  Jawwad Mohammed

DELHI
31.  Noor Zaheer
32.  Zakia Soman, Bhartiya Muslim Mahila Andolan
33.  Dilip Simeon
34.  Sonia Jabbar
35.  Jamal Kidwai
36.  Ira Singh
37.  Nasiruddin Hyder
38.  Antara Dev Sen
39.  Harsh Kapoor

HYDERABAD
40.  Jameela Nishat, Shaheen Women Resource & Welfare Association (Hyderabad).
41.  Asma Begum, Shaheen Women Resource & Welfare Association (Hyderabad).
42.  Mazher Hussain (Hyderabad).

LUCKNOW
43.  Salim Kidwai
44.  Hamida Khatoon, Sanatkada
45.  Fauzia Khan, AALI

OTHER
46.  Rebecca Kurian (Bangalore)
47.  Dhirendra Sharma, (Dehradun, UP)
48.  Reshma Bohra Sahiyar (Gujarat)
49.  Azma Aziz, Muhim (Farrukhabad, UP)
50.  Shadab Jahan, Astitva, (Muzaffarnagar, UP)
51.  Rupina Patel Muslim Mahila Manch, (Nagpur)
52.  Anvar Rajan, Pragatisheel Muslim Andolan (Pune)
53.  Ghulam Mohiyuddin (New York, USA)
54.  Najid Hussain (USA)
55.  Javid Syed (New York, USA)
56.  Mohammed Imran
57.  G. T. Verghese
58.  A. Mani
59.  Nirupa Bhangar
60.  Nazma Iqbal, Pehchan Samajik Sanstha (Uttarakhand)
61.  Fatima Shahroz, (UP)
62.  Sumati Sudhakar
63.  Ayesha Khatoon


Popular posts from this blog

Third degree torture used on Maruti workers: Rights body

By Dilip -
The People’s Union for Democratic Rights on Tuesday alleged that third degree torture methods were used by the Gurgaon Criminal Investigation Agency while interrogating workers of Maruti Suzuki India Limited’s Manesar plant who are accused of involvement in the killing of an HR manager and the violent attack at the plant on July 18. The PUDR alleged that the Gurgaon CIA investigation “did not seem” to be directed at solving the crime or probing the involvement of the arrested workers in the incidents and crimes recorded in the FIR but instead was based on their involvement in trade union activities. Grave doubts  “The use of third degree torture in police custody, and the securing of arrestees’ signatures on blank papers by the police, gives rise to grave doubts regarding the ability of such an investigation in effectively identifying or arresting those guilty. The police and the State seem keener to reassure Maruti Suzuki Ltd. and ensure that production continues,” the ...
Read more

Haruki Murakami: On seeing the 100% perfect girl one beautiful April morning

By Dilip -
According to Murakami, “1Q84” is just an amplification of one of his most popular short stories,   which (in its English version) is five pages long. “Basically, it’s the same,” he told me. “A boy meets a girl. They have separated and are looking for each other. It’s a simple story. I just made it long.” One beautiful April morning, on a narrow side street in Tokyo's fashionable Harujuku neighborhood, I walked past the 100% perfect girl. Tell you the truth, she's not that good-looking. She doesn't stand out in any way. Her clothes are nothing special. The back of her hair is still bent out of shape from sleep. She isn't young, either - must be near thirty, not even close to a "girl," properly speaking. But still, I know from fifty yards away: She's the 100% perfect girl for me. The moment I see her, there's a rumbling in my chest, and my mouth is as dry as a desert..." read the story: http://www.youmightfindyourself.com/post/22131227...
Read more

Albert Camus's lecture 'The Human Crisis', New York, March 1946. 'No cause justifies the murder of innocents'

By Dilip -
The morning after a great historical crisis, you feel as sad and sick as after a heavy night. But there is no aspirin for historical hangovers .. The world is no longer divided into the just or unjust, but into masters and slaves. He who is right is he who enslaves.  Albert Camus     La crise de l'homme : THE HUMAN CRISIS   (Text read by Viggo Mortensen on March 28 2016)   Ladies and Gentlemen: when I was invited to give a series of lectures in the United States of America, I felt some doubt and hesitation. I am really not old enough to give lectures, and I am more at ease with the process of thinking than I am making categorical statements... since I don't feel I have any claim on what is generally called the truth. I shared this reservation and was very politely told that my personal opinion didn't matter. What mattered was that I'd be able to offer some facts about France so that my listeners could form their own opinions. It was then suggested...
Read more

The Almond Trees by Albert Camus (1940)

By Dilip -
Image
'Do you know', Napoleon once said to Fontanes, 'what astounds me most about the world?  The impotence of force to establish anything.  There are only two powers in the world: the sword and the mind.  In the end, the sword is always conquered by the mind' Conquerors, you see, are sometimes melancholy.  They have to pay some price for so much vainglory. But what a hundred years ago was true of the sword is no longer true today of the tank. Conquerors have made progress, and the dismal silence of places without intelligence has been established for years at a time in a lacerated Europe. At the time of the hideous wars of Flanders, Dutch painters could still perhaps paint the cockerels in their farmyards. The Hundred Years War has likewise been forgotten, and yet the prayers of Silesian mystics still linger in some hearts. But today, things have changed; the painter and the monk have been drafted - we are one with the world.  The mind has lost that regal certai...
Read more

Etel Adnan - To Be In A Time Of War

By Dilip -
NB: Etel Adnan, writer, poet, artist and musician was born in 1925 and raised in Beirut, Lebanon. Her mother was a Greek from Smyrna, her father, a high ranking Ottoman officer born in Damascus. This prose poem is the final chapter of her book  In the Heart of the Heart of Another Country .  Read more about her here  - DS To Be In A Time Of War To say nothing, do nothing, mark time, to bend, to straighten up, to blame oneself, to stand, to go toward the window, to change one’s mind in the process, to return to one’s chair, to stand again, to go to the bathroom, to close the door, to then open the door, to go to the kitchen, to not eat nor drink, to return to the table, to be bored, to take a few steps on the rug, to come close to the chimney, to look at it, to find it dull, to turn left until the main door, to come back to the room, to hesitate, to go on, just a bit, a trifle, to stop, to pull the right side of the curtain, then the other side, ...
Read more

After the Truth Shower

By Dilip -
Dear Readers Thank you for reading my blog for the past eleven years. (This is a link to the new one) During this time it has had nearly 1.7 million hits; and I have posted over 9500 posts covering a variety of themes. From July 11 to 19, 2022, my blog was withdrawn by the Blogger administration on account of what its machinery suspected to be 'Impersonation'. It took over a week and the efforts of several well-wishers to get it back online I thank them all for their kindness and goodwill  My blog has always been - and remains - non-commercial. I have used it for academic purposes; and to foster a culture of debate and informed commentary in civil society. Because it contains a large amount of material gathered and collated for over a decade, I cannot afford to lose its contents. I hope it will remain undisturbed now and function as an archive. However, I have decided to use a new blog on WordPress as a platform for my newest comments and posts The new blog is titled After the...
Read more

James Gilligan on Shame, Guilt and Violence

By Dilip -
Shame, Guilt, and Violence / James Gilligan During the past 35 years I have used prisons and prison mental hospitals as "laboratories" in which to investigate the causes and prevention of the various forms of violence and the relationships between these forms and to what I will call (with a nod to William James) "the varieties of moral experience." In the course of that work, I have been struck by the frequency with which I received the same answer when I asked prisoners, or mental patients, why they assaulted or even killed someone. Time after time, they would reply "because he disrespected me" or "he disrespected my visitor [or wife, mother, sister, girl-friend, daughter, etc.]." In fact, they used that phrase so often that they abbreviated it into the slang phrase, "He dis'ed me." Whenever people use a word so often that they abbreviate it, it is clearly central to their moral and emotional vocabulary. But even when they did n...
Read more