Table bill to check honour killings: Brinda Karat

NEW DELHI - Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Brinda Karat on Saturday demanded that the Central Government should take a firm decision for a separate law on ‘honour killings’ and table it in the monsoon session of Parliament.

“There are political considerations at work to downplay the magnitude of the crime. There is an attempt by those in office in at least one of the States where such crimes have occurred to defend the highly retrograde actions of self-styled caste panchayats in the name of tradition,” Karat said.

Karat said referring the matter to the Group of Ministers (GoM) would not be helpful at all and delay the process.

Urging Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh “to do justice to young couples who are victims of anti-democratic and casteist notions and beliefs”, Karat said: “What is required is a firm decision by the government for a separate law, the draft of which may be placed in Parliament in the coming session.”

“Unfortunately Home Minister P. Chidambaram was “clearly unaware of the logic” for a separate legislation on the issue as he had maintained that prima facie he was “‘not sure whether that will take us very far,” she added.

Karat further said that earlier all the political parties cutting across party lines had supported the suggestion that there should be a separate law to deal with the range of so-called honour crimes. (ANI)