Parties in a bind on gay rights

Already reeling from electoral defeats, the Supreme Court verdict on gay rights was the last thing the government needed in an election year. Homosexuality is an issue on which society is sharply divided. Any decision by the government, in favour or against, can give rise to passions.
“We are now stuck between the devil and the deep sea,” a senior Congress leader said. The traditional vote banks of the parties could be hit if they take a “strong stand against the order”, a BJP politician claimed.
The Delhi high court judgment was challenged by some members of the BJP, All-India Muslim Personal Law Board, Utkal Christian Council and Apostolic Churches Alliance.
Though Union ministers Kapil Sibal and Manish Tewari said that following the Supreme Court verdict the government would now “exercise its own prerogative”, politically neither the Congress nor the BJP are willing to move on the issue. Both parties feel that the gay rights issue has “limited public support”. The Congress feels that not acting on the top court judgment might “upset” the LGBT community but acting in its favour “might have an adverse impact on a large chunk of society”.
As for the BJP, it was senior party leader B.P. Singhal who in 2006 had filed a plea in the high court opposing decriminalising gay sex. If Congress ministers have come on record saying that the issue would be looked into, no BJP leader was willing to come out openly on this.
The BJP is of the opinion that its traditional vote bank would be hit if the party is seen coming out in support of the LGBT community. Saffron leaders kept issuing vague statements and said the “court does not have to legalise or illegalise such a thing. It is not against the order of nature.” The BJP, whose ideology revolves around religion, “cannot go against religion”, a party functionary said. For the Congress and BJP, decriminalising homosexuality is “not a vote winner”.
Some in the Congress feel that the top court has put the government in a Catch-22 situation. The top ministers of the Congress have been harping on how Parliament must make laws to support executive decisions. But now, with the top court throwing the ball back at them on the issue of IPC Section 377, the government is in a major fix. “The upper middle class and the liberals want the government to act. This particular section might get upset. But then they are not the vote bank we want to reach out to,” a senior Congressman said, making clear the party’s stand.