AMID a raging debate on whether same-sex marriages should get legal sanction or not, Trinamool Congress General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee became one of the few senior politicians to come out in support of such marriages. Abhishek, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew, claimed that every individual has the right to choose their partners irrespective of their gender or sex.
“Everyone has the right to choose their own respective life partner, love has no limit. If I want to choose a life partner of my choice, if I'm a man & I'm fond of man, if I'm a woman and I'm fond of woman, or whatever combination that is, I am no doyen or authority to make a comment on that. But I believe that everyone has got the right to fall in love, to choose their life partners. I am hopeful that Supreme Court will rule in favour of the ethos we take pride in,” TMC General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee said, according to ANI.
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In addition to supporting same-sex marriages, Banerjee also slammed the Centre for delaying a decision in the matter “for no reason”. Centre had recently urged the Supreme Court to make all states and Union Territories a party in the matter or give it time to seek their opinion and submit it to the top court in a compilation.
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“The Centre is deliberately delaying the matter. This tactic keeps the matter dangling for no reason. They could have done that in the last seven years if they were serious about seeking an opinion. They want to dilly-dally on the matter for no reason,” he alleged.
The Supreme Court is hearing a batch of petitions seeking legal sanction for marriages of same-sex couples. Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre has vehemently opposed the demands and arguments of the petitioners and also asked the top court to leave the matter of such civil unions to the legislature since it represents a wider section of Indian population. In its submissions, Centre also argues that the petitioners represent only “urban elitist views”.
Responding to that, the five-judge Supreme Court bench said that Centre had to data to substantiate its claim that the concept of same-sex mariages is “elitist” or “urban”. The bench also claimed that state should not discriminate against an individual on the basis of sexual orientation over which a person has no control.
Which politicians have openly supported LGBTQ+ rights?
Sashi Tharoor, senior Congress politician from Kerala who was in the race to become grand old party’s chief last year, has supported legalising same-sex marriages in his personal capacity and made it clear that he does not represent his party’s views, according to an Indian Express report. Another senior Congress leader Manish Tiwari has also supported such marriages.
Communist Party of India (Marxist)’s Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat has also expressed her support for legalising same-sex marriages and in fact asserted that her party openly supports such unions. “The Court must intervene as the present government has made it clear that it does not support such a right,” she had said.
Another TMC MP, Mahua Moitra, has been a long-time supporter of LGBTQ+ rights in India. Back in February 2021, she had used a quote of a United States Justice Anthony Kennedy (who was part of the bench that delivered the landmark judgement legalising gay marriages in the US) to criticise Centre’s opposition to same-sex marriages. “The nature of injustice is that we may not always see it in our own times,” she had cited a quote of Justice Kennedy.
(With agency inputs)