Historic verdict: SC rules gay sex is not a crime; what is Section 377?

Watch: Historic verdict - What is Section 377?

Historic verdict: SC rules gay sex is not a crime; what is Section 377?

NEW DELHI: For all its debates on 'minority rights', the political class has skirted any discussion on the LGBTQ minority, wary of a backlash from their conservative support base. In 2013, when the Supreme Court heard the appeal against the Delhi high court ruling, the then additional solicitor general P P Malhotra, representing the UPA government, strongly opposed decriminalising Section 377 , saying that would be "immoral, unethical and abhorrent" for society.Discomfited by criticism of its stand, the UPA government drafted then attorney general GE Vahanvati, who said there was no error in the HC order and left it to the SC to take a view. After the SC struck down the HC ruling decriminalising gay sex , Congress chief Sonia Gandhi expressed disappointment with the verdict. The Centre filed a review in early 2014, which was rejected.Even earlier, the contradictions within the UPA government were evident when the home ministry's affidavit in the Delhi HC said homosexuality could not be morally condoned while the health ministry said Section 377 was an obstruction in the fight against HIV/AIDS.The Modi government decided to leave the decision on whether Section 377 should be decriminalised to the SC, carefully limiting its implicit "no objection" to same-sex relations between consenting adults. It made it clear that it did not want the court to consider issues like adoption, inheritance and marriage.While the government took its stand, BJP kept a low profile on the issue, with its spokespersons avoiding comment. The view in the party seemed to be that with the Centre having taken a stand intended to facilitate decriminalisation, there was no need to agitate conservative opinion further. The caution and confusion that has marked the response of successive governments is a fair indicator of the social taboos working across support bases of various parties.Among mainstream politicians, finance minister Arun Jaitley, Congress leaders P Chidambaram and Shashi Tharoor and BJD MP Tathagatha Satpathy are rare examples of those who criticised the SC's 2013 ruling reversing the Delhi HC order. There have been a few others, like BJP MP from Raipur Ramesh Bais who, as head of a parliamentary panel, sought to expand transgenders rights.But largely, the reactions of the political class have been hostile. BJP MP Subramaniam Swamy lashed out at Thursday's SC order saying homosexuality was a "genetic flaw" like having six fingers. RJD leader Lalu Prasad opposed the 2009 Delhi HC order, saying gay sex was an obscene act. Dissident BJP leader Yashwant Sinha had once suggested, as retaliation to the cavity search of Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade in the US, that American diplomats in India with samesex partners be arrested.Vishwa Hindu Parishad has described homosexuality as an "imported disease". The silence of most parties indicated a concern that conservative opinion, and widespread prejudice, would be critical of any endorsement of the gay community.