BJP's Amit Malviya had tweeted against scrapping of Section 377; raised questions on inheritance, adoption laws for homosexuals

BJP’s National Information and Technology in-charge Amit Malviya found himself in a spot on Thursday after the Supreme Court decriminalised homosexuality in India in a landmark judgment .

As soon as the five-member Bench of the apex court unanimously struck down the clause in Section 377 of IPC prohibiting a relationship between two consenting homosexuals, activists and LGBTQ community across the country celebrated with much fervour and hailed the Supreme Court verdict.

However, even though Malviya did not comment on the judgment on Thursday, social media users dug up his previous tweets, in which he had expressed his reservations about the Act. For instance, in one of the tweets dated, 11 December 2013, Malviya had asked his followers if they would rent their house to a homosexual couple.

Just curious how many would rent their apartment to homosexual couples ? Raise hand please. #IPC377

— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) December 11, 2013

He went ahead to raise questions on the property rights, inheritance and adoption laws for homosexual couples, in reply to the comments on his tweet. Such provisions in the legislature, to date, remain non-existent and thus, prove that there is still a long battle ahead for the community.

However, in an even vocal advocacy of the (now earlier) Section 377 Act, Malviya had written on Twitter in 2015 that he was “glad” that India voted against recognising same-sex couples at the United Nations and went on to say that, “We can’t allow institution of family, which comprises a man and woman to collapse,” making his stand clear on the equal rights issue.

Glad India voted against recognising same sex couples @ UN. We can't allow institution of family, which comprises a man & woman to collapse.

— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) March 26, 2015

However, despite the government’s anti-homosexuality stand at the UN in 2015, and that of Malviya and the likes, studies conducted between 1990 and 2014 show that support for homosexuality has increased in the country. In fact, based on data sourced from CVoterIndia WVS/WorldValues Survey Data Archive, India ranks way above the global mean score in terms of justifiability of homosexuality. Firstpost delved into the data that studies acceptance of homosexuality in India as well as that of a homosexual neighbour, something Malviya had raised way back in 2013. See for yourself: