Monday, November 29, 1999

Khap row: Hindu Marriage Act fine, says Selja

News posted by www.newsinfoline.com

Chandigarh, May 17 (PTI) With several political leaders throwing their lot behind Khap Panchayats or caste councils, Union Tourism Minister Selja today sought to belittle the attention given to them saying the law of the land is supreme. "What are these Panchayats?" the Congress lawmaker from Ambala asked mediapersons here when they fielded a number of questions on these self-styled community councils. On Khaps'' demand for amending the Hindu Marriage Act to prevent weddings within the same clan or sub-castes, she said as far as she was concerned the Act was fine. "The law of the land is supreme. It has to prevail," the Minister said referring to the hype surrounding the Khaps, often flayed for running a parallel system of justice. She did not comment on party MP Navin Jindal showering praise on the Khap Panchayats and the INLD favouring their demand for amending the Hindu Marriage Act. On last month''s Mirchpur incident at Hisar in which a disabled girl and her father were burnt alive when a number dalit houses were set afire allegedly by members of the Jat community, Selja termed the happenings as "unfortunate and tragic". Asked if the Congress government in Haryana had failed to protect dalits, she said "the incident is a rude and a sad reminder that we are yet rise above caste considerations." "We have so many programmes for the uplift of the lower strata of society, but we are yet to come out of the caste bias", Selja said. On the role of dominant Jat community in the Mirchpur incident, she said all of them could not be blamed. "I met the dalits and the Jats during my visit to Mirchpur. They (the Jats) are feeling repentant and sorry for the incident. I asked them to resolve the matter." She said the Congress chief Sonia Gandhi had taken a serious view of the Mirchpur incident while the party general secretary Rahul Gandhi had visited the affected village. PTI SUN RKC.

News posted by www.newsinfoline.com

Click here to read more news from www.newsinfoline.com
Please follow our blogs

newsinfolinephotogallery
prabugallery
newsinfolinephotogallery1

photogallery1

No comments:

Post a Comment