NEW DELHI – Indian Army Chief Gen Bipin Rawat on Thursday said thathomosexuality would not be tolerated in the armed forces, according to*NDTV*.link
He made the comment when asked his take on the Supreme Courtdecriminalising homosexuality last year.
“We will not allow this to happen in the army , in the army LGBT issues…are not unacceptable. We will still be dealing with them under varioussections of the Army Act,” said General Rawat, addressing his annual pressconference.
“We are not above the country’s law but when you join the Indian Army, someof the rights and privileges you enjoy are not what we have. Some thingsare different for us, but we are certainly not above the Supreme Court,” hesaid.
“We will have to see how we take a call, let us also see how it comes intothe society, whether it’s accepted or not… I can’t say what will happen 20years down the line.”
A five-judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court last Septemberunanimously decriminalised a part of a colonial-era law under Section 377of the Indian Penal Code, which banned “consensual unnatural sex”, sayingit violated the rights to equality.
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Asked about the Supreme Court also ruling that adultery is not a crime,General Rawat said the Army is “very conservative”.
He added, “We are neither modernised, nor westernised.”
The army chief was asked these questions after a former general suggestedin an article that the armed forces can continue to enforce their own ruleson gay sex and adultery even after the Supreme Court orders.
The article originally appeared in *NDTV*link
