Homosexuality socially immoral act in society: Dattatreya Hosabale.
By Sreekanth A. Nair
RSS joint general secretary Dattatreya Hosabale on Friday said that homosexuality is not a crime and it should be treated like a psychological issue, but not be institutionalized.
“Homosexuality is not a crime, but socially immoral act in our society. No need to punish, but to be treated as a psychological case,” he wrote in a tweet.
“Gay marriage is Institutionalisation of homosexuality. It should be prohibited. Approach to homosexuality should be ‘no criminalisation; no glorification either’,” he said in another tweet.
A day back, while addressing India Today conclave in New Delhi, Hosabale had said that the RSS didn’t have a view on sexual preferences as it was a personal choice.
“Sexual preferences are private and personal. Why should RSS express its views in a public forum? RSS has no view on that. It is for people to have their way. Personal preference of sex is not discussed in RSS and we don’t even want to discuss that,” he said on Thursday.
“I don’t think homosexuality should be considered a criminal offence as long as it does not affect the lives of others in society,” he added.
According to section 377 of Indian Penal Code, homosexuality is unnatural and punishable with imprisonment up to 10 years. Recently, following the global trends, many organizations and individuals have raised their voice for decriminalising homosexuality.
The RSS itself has softened its stance on homosexuality in recent years.
In an interview with Business Standard, RSS Ram Madhav had said, “As for Section 377, let us see what stand the government takes on this issue. But I can say this – that while glorification of certain forms of social behavior is not something we endorse, the penalizing and criminalization aspects need to be looked into. Whether to call homosexuality a crime and treat it as one in this day and age is questionable.”