India is neither Darul Islam nor the Indian Constitution has permitted the prosecution if the act is committed with mutual consent by mature individuals.
THE ALIGARH Muslim University professor Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras was found dead Wednesday in his rented accommodation in mysterious circumstances. The death came to light after neighbors found foul smell emanating from his room. Police broke into his room to find the decomposed body on the bed. It has traces of blood that had oozed from his mouth. The circumstantial evidence was hardly enough to zero on the cause of death, police said.
That homosexuality has been a reality of life since time immemorial and no followers of any religion can claim to be immune to this habit. If a country is a declared Darul Islam (absolute majority of practicing Muslims) than homosexuality is a cardinal sin and subject to the rule of Shariah Code, provided the offender is also a Muslim. India is neither DI nor the Indian Constitution has permitted the prosecution if the act is committed with mutual consent by mature individuals.
The deceased Professor Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras was a Reader and Head of Modern Indian Languages department. He was suspended on February 9 for being gay (his partner was a rickshaw puller and he was an outsider) under Rule 403 – C of University Statute which covers gross misconduct.
He was not a Muslim and laws of Shariah were not applicable for him. His acts of homosexuality didn’t involve any student of the university and he did what he did exclusively in his private apartment. It was none of the University’s business.
Action should have been taken against those who had put the cameras in his private space. Instead of prosecuting these peeping toms and sting operators, a learned scholar was sacrificed at the altar of high standard of morality. Whatever might be the reasons for his death, no one can deny that he was forced to absolute humiliation and social mental torture as the university administration took a hasty action to prove their efficient HMS (high moral standard).
While no one can make a generalized statement in such a situation, one can ask these mace bearers of high morality if they can with 100 % assurance that the practice of homosexuality had never been or is not there today in absolute clinical terms? How many incidents have been reported in the past and what punishments were given? The ‘holier than thou’ attitude does no favour any ideology. May be the Old Boys of Aligarh would recollect and recall a few famous names of the past who were known for this activity. This unfortunate professor deserved a better treatment.
