Tharoor Gives Up After His Bill To Decriminalise Homosexuality Is Defeated

New Delhi: For the second time in three months, the Lok Sabha today voted against the introduction of a private member's bill to decriminalise homosexuality brought by Congress lawmaker Shashi Tharoor. The development led to the Thiruvananthapuram lawmaker to tweet suggesting he won't make another attempt to bring the bill.

"So bigotry &homophobia on the BJP side met indifference&prejudice on the Opposition's. Will have to leave it to the SupremeCourt to resolve (sic)," he said in his tweet a few hours later, blaming both the treasury and opposition benches for not supporting the bill. 58 out of 73 members present voted against the introduction of the Bill, while 14 favoured it. One member abstained from voting.

The bill sought to amend Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code or IPC, which criminalises homosexuality, describing it as a colonial relic. It wanted to decriminalise sexual intercourse in private between consenting adults, irrespective of their sexuality or gender by restricting the applicability of the section.

When Mr Tharoor sought permission to introduce the private member's bill today, BJP members negated the motion and sought division of the house (a vote), which was granted by Speaker Sumitra Mahajan. "Bitter disappointment as my attempt to introduce my bill to amend Sec377 defeated again. Several MPs who'd promised to vote in favour absent," Mr Tharoor tweeted.

His previous attempt to introduce a similar bill in the Lok Sabha on December 18 last year too was voted out. The Thiruvananthapuram MP had then said he would make another attempt to introduce the bill. The Supreme Court, in December 2013, overturned a verdict of the Delhi High Court that had set aside Section 377 of the IPC asking the government to take a view on decriminalising homosexuality.

The Delhi High Court in 2009 had ruled that Section 377 was unconstitutional.