The Khap panchayat’s behavior has moved from the ridiculous to the outrageous. What gives a small vocal minority the right to hold the rest of the country to ransom? MPs like Naveen Jindal and Chautala who even pretend to take these khaps seriously, in my opinion should be described by just one word – spineless. Anyone who isn’t outraged by “honor killings” needs to have their head examined.
The khaps are a joke. I won’t even bother demolishing their arguments. I’ll leave that as a textbook exercise for the IX standard civics class. What really bugs me is that these morons are trying to defy the Constitution of India. In the recent verdict decriminalizing homosexuality, the Delhi HC made it clear that “Constitutional morality trumps public morality.” It means your personal opinions about what’s right and wrong don’t matter if it goes against what’s written in the constitution.
Since our Constitution forms the bedrock of our nation, I propose the only possible solution. Banish the khaps from India. They don’t accept the foundations of our country, so why are they still here? They’re not Indians. Let them seek citizenship in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia or some other non-free nation. This is India. And we don’t like hooligans here.
If the khaps object to inter-gotra marriage, let them utilize some nice peaceful form of protest. Let them write a book about it. Sing a song. Paint something which shows their disapproval. Make speeches condemning it. But if they threaten violence, they need to be put down like rabid dogs. And this is exactly what the court did. It sentenced them to death. All dangerous animals need to be put to death and by resorting to violence, these people have given up their right to be treated like humans.
But better still is if we just dropped them outside the borders of India. After all, they have no right to call themselves Indians after defying the Constitution. A straight helicopter pick and drop off is what’s called for. In and out within the hour. No discussion, no big announcements. The shortest arc connecting the pick up and drop off points needs to be drawn and the khaps should be made to follow it. Now that’s justice!
Brilliant!! Tweeted it. You are right. They should be dropped out of the country. They murder and when they are questioned they say they want the law changed!
Brilliant.
So sharp, pithy. Well-put.
With you all the way. Khap sounds suspiciously like 'cr*p' anyway…GAH!
Hear! Hear! Hats off to you – you said it so well! Sharing this!
Very well written and yes, they need to be banished from free India together with Jindal and Chautala…
Take a look at this article in HT http://www.hindustantimes.com/77-per-cent-oppose-same-gotra-marriages-HT-survey/H1-Article3-542384.aspx
According to a survey conducted by HT, 77% of Haryanvis oppose same gotra marriages…34% of the respondents feel khap panchayats have the right to order the social boycott (and killings?) of a couple if it violates same gotra marriage rules…
In reply to Sraboney
Shocking isn’t it? One feels that these people must be dragged kicking and screaming into the the 21st century!
But we’re not asking them to change their feelings. Just obey the law…
Jason Overdorf is an outsider, probably living a cushy Delhi lifestyle. He is clueless about India and should be taken with several grains of salt.
Even if "Miyan Biwi razi…", the Supreme Court cannot legalize brother-sister marriages! it is quite common in Haryana for caste-relatives to adopt each other's children and raise them as their own without the kids being aware. Over the passage of time as the kids come of age, only caste elders would have the detailed historical genetic lineage of who was adopted by whom, who are in reality blood brother and sister etc.
"Just obey the law" is not the be all, end all. If this were true, we would still be a colony of exploitation. Nor is the Indian constitution the "final" word – if that were true, gays would never get to repeal the draconian British era law.
I do not condone the khap killings, of course. The perpetrators deserve the punishment they got and more.
In reply to skg
But being gay was not illegal under the constitution. It was only a crime under the law which went against the constitution, and that’s why it was repealed!
Also, nature is better at preventing inbreeding than the khaps or ever the law. I’ll bet you’ve never met anyone who’s fallen in love with his/her biological sister or brother or mother or father. This is because of the Westermarck effect of reverse sexual imprinting which makes such relationships repulsive to us. There’s really no need to have a law telling us not to do something we would never indulge in anyway!
Basically if two people fall in love, nature has spoken. And that is the ultimate authority…
In reply to Bhagwad Jal Park
Hare baba, to every man his brother's daughter and his sister's daughter are both equally related in the biological sense. how is that he can marry his sister's daughter but cannot marry his brother's daughter?. In all the countries in the world only person who is born to the same father or mother is considered his brother or sister. Only in India we have a stuipid thing called gothra according to which a competely unrelated person is considered a person's brother.