Lalu against legalising gay sex, Sharad Yadav has no issues (Lead)

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Saturday said the Delhi High Court had done a "very dangerous thing" by decriminalising gay sex, though Janata Dal-United (JD-U) chief Sharad Yadav believed "homosexuality is not an issue in India".

"It is a very dangerous thing the Delhi High Court has said that it (homosexuality) is not a crime and the law must be amended. I will raise this topic in parliament and the amendment (to the law against it) should not be done," Lalu Prasad told a news channel.

"It should never be legalised in India," the former railway minister said.

"Some people may like or consent to these things, but these things are not acceptable in our society and we don't like all these things and it is very bad. It can lead to wrongdoings in the world," he added.

JD-U leader and National Democratic Alliance (NDA) convenor Sharad Yadav told reporters that he was willing to accept the court order but added that homosexuality "was not an issue in the country".

He said homosexuality was "age-old" in India but suspected that the court order was a "government ploy" to divert attention from the real issues confronting people.

In a landmark verdict Thursday, the Delhi High Court ruled that gay sex among consenting adults was no crime. The court struck down Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), a relic of the British Raj, which criminalised gay sex terming it an "unnatural offence".

Lalu Prasad, a former railway minister, said those arrested under Section 377 should be sentenced to 10 years in jail.

"I have been a law student and practised as a lawyer and the things which affect our society should never be permitted. All these are nonsense and bad things," he said.

The government meanwhile is treading cautiously on the matter. On Friday, three cabinet ministers - Home Minister P. Chidambaram, Law Minister M. Veerappa Moily and Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad - held a meeting to discuss the issue.

Moily later told reporters that they would submit a report to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who would take a final decision on whether to amend the archaic law dealing with the issue.

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( 381 Words)

2009-07-04-20:45:12 (IANS)

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