To trash: Section377 or the Supreme Court
What is the most trending topic in India today? No goodies for your guesses.
The Supreme Court of India has declared that Gay Sex is Illegal. As a result, #Sec377 and LGBT are trending on Twitter and Facebook.
Visible Outrage has sparked across India. People have not spared the Supreme Court and have been trashing it left, right and centre. Some have called the Supreme Court a Silly Court. Why not? We are a Democracy and we can call anyone anything we desire.
I have a question. Did any one of us take a step back and think for a moment? Did we think was it the Supreme Court or we the people thrashing it, Silly? Please do.
The moral brigade would start trashing me in their minds even before they proceed to read further. We are an intolerant nation which demands answers even before the question ends. We are the young blood of the country and we thump our hearts to seek answers. Why not, rite?
Did you read the Verdict? Do you understand what it means? If not, read on.
The Supreme Court said that it cannot strike down a constitutional clause as it is not its job. What it means is this. In India, we have often heard of the Three Pillars of Societal governance. To make it easy, I shall name them for you.
- Executive
- Legislative
- Judiciary
In Supreme Court’s words, what it means is – it cannot make alterations to the Constitution as it is a duty of the Legislative. Legislative is the people whom we elect, who sit in the two houses of the parliament and they have to make policy decisions.
The Executive is the arm that implements decisions taken by the Legislative. Judiciary, Supreme Court being a part of it, is the arm that looks at arbitration/resolving issues that concern the nation. Resolve by directing the concerned departments to act in the required manner, and not becoming the Executive.
In simple words, if I file a case in my local court saying the village toilets have not been completed despite allocation of funds, it doesn’t mean that you ask the court judge or staff to come and fix the toilets. Enough said, I hope.
So why are we slinging mud at the Supreme Court?
Should I say we lack the basic ability of a logical thought? Surely not. Then why? I probably attribute it to the human tendency of momentary impulse. Instead of appealing to the Judiciary, we have to exert more pressure on the legislative i.e, the Government of India.
What is going to be more interesting is the government’s response time to address this issue. Given that national elections are round the corner, will it take a speedy action and ensure that its legislators would amend the constitution of India or will it pass on the buck to the next government.
Given Congresses’ debacle in the state elections, this would be a good opportunity to take a decision and improve their credibility at least among some of us. One of my friends always keeps posting & boasting about a decisive leadership being the need of the hour. He means Modi should be the next PM. What would be more interesting to see is that if Modi comes to power, would he be able to amend the constitution on Section 377. Simple facts here. BJP is dominated by the Sangh. Sangh being a religiously inclined outfit, would never act on Section377 as they claim it’s against nature’s wish. So I don’t see much luck on that side.
So where are we heading? As on many fronts, towards more negativity and pessimism towards the Indian Society.
As on many matters, this event only leaves me with more questions than answers.
Will we have more Indians leaving the country in search of better justice and greener pastures?
Will the LGBT community fight the government and ensure the amendment is done?
Worse, will we see more of our LGBT friends hide in the closet?
We have been fighting to empower our women, who are a good half of our population. Will India really stand up to address the pressing need to give an identity to the LGBT community, which forms an even smaller part of Indian population?
If you have answers to any of these questions, don’t respond. Please Act. DO what need’s to be done. Don’t just sit and write more articles like these.
Picture Courtesy: http://blogs.wsj.com/
