Dithering BJP to take a stand on 377 verdict after all party meet

The BJP which has refrained from making any public statement on the controversial Supreme Court decision to uphold section 377 of the penal code, effectively criminalising consensual gay sex, is still refusing to make a stand, saying they want to only do so after an all party meeting.

BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters that Sushma Swaraj had made the party stand on 377 clear, when she had called on the government to hold an all party meeting over the issue.

The only BJP comments on the issue have come from spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi who said she welcomed section 377 because it would stop men from getting raped and Piyush Goyal who tweeted, “In the modern age, every individual has the freedom of choice, and we should respect it. There’s nothing “unnatural” in these relationships and I hope the subject is reviewed / law amended at the earliest”.

Apart from these reactions, the senior BJP leadership has maintained a stony silence on the issue.

This is in stark contrast to the senior Congress leaders who have been lining up to decry the ruling.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi issued a statement expressing her disappointment “that the Supreme Court has reversed a previous Delhi High Court ruling on the issue of gay rights” (Read her full statement here )

After that senior ministers Kapil Sibal and Chidambram also joined in, while Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi made a media statement, saying that the ruling was a violation of personal freedom.

Possibly pushed into a corner by people clamouring for a statement from the BJP, senior leader and leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj, called for an all party meet on the matter.

On this issue the BJP finds itself pushed into a corner. To condemn the Supreme Court verdict may well put it at odds with its conservative vote bank, but popular opinion as magnified by the mainstream media and social media, is in favour of gay rights.

As Firstpost editor Lakshmi Chaudhry pointed out ,

… if the BJP continues to stay mum despite the UPA’s strong advocacy, the decision will read as outright cowardly. Social hot-button topics, be it homosexuality or women’s safety, are no longer minor issues that have little electoral relevance – more so for a party that is betting both on its urban appeal and its traditional Hindu base.

Both will expect the BJP to speak out. Silence is no longer an option. (Nor is dissembling like Meenakshi Lekhi who claims the HC ruling would have eliminated Section 377.) The good news, however, for the BJP is that decriminalising homosexuality may not have the broad-based support to do damage if it does toe the RSS line on this one. But such loyalty is no longer cost-free in new India.