Ex-Finance Minister Raghavji had been on the run since 5th of July, when his domestic help first accused him of sodomy. Fortunately he was arrested yesterday after the police were tipped off about his whereabouts. Justice Pandey sent Raghavji to judicial remand till July 22 and is being currently held in Bhopal Central Prison.
The problem at hand is that the tainted minister is being accused of “sodomy”. According to the Merrian-Webster dictionary sodomy is defined as :
anal or oral copulation with a member of the same or opposite sex;
Sodomy takes place between consenting adults, just like sex does. Unfortunately in India sodomy is thought of as an act that only gay men participate in, not lesbians or heterosexuals. So to consider sodomy a crime is as good as considering homosexuality to be a crime. It’s been four years since the anti-gay and the sodomy portion of section 377 has been read down. However section 377 still exists as a law against sexual assault on a person or child.
That Raghavji forced himself upon another man does not make the case about sodomy, but about RAPE and/or SEXUAL ASSULT, and is thus being charged under 377.
The media have publicized this as a case of “sodomy” and this has lead to the resurrection of anti-gay sentiments and jokes aligning rape with homosexuality. Below are some of the tweets making the rounds today:
The LGBT has fought and won our battle against the “sodomy” law. It is no longer a crime (and it should never should have been), so when why should we allow the media to publicize it as such. More importantly why should we allow gay and rape to exist in the same sentence? When a man rapes a woman, we call him a rapist, not straight or a heterosexual. So when a man rapes a man, why should he then be called gay or a homosexual?
Many have already raised their voices, it’s time the rest of us did too.
