May 11: Emboldened by former chief minister Om Prakash Chautala and MP Naveen Jindal’s public pronouncements, Haryana’s self-appointed caste chiefs have said they will oppose the proposed law against honour killings while warning politicians and political parties trying to block their
demand for amendments to the Hindu Marriage Act to ban what they consider “incestuous” liaisons.
“No leader or party can have any future in Haryana if they oppose the khaps,” Haryana’s Jat Mahasabha chief, Hawa Singh, declared in a brazen assertion of the immense collective clout of the caste councils. “Khap panchayats control more than 40 of the 90 Assembly constituencies here. Tell me, who could ever stand against them,” he told this newspaper on Tuesday evening.
The khap chief insists the law ministry’s proposed law against honour killings is an “unnecessary and insi-dious measure to defame the custodians of Haryana’s centuries-old caste traditions”. He said changes to the existing Hindu Marri-age Act would “automatically render the honour crimes legislation irrelevant”.
Hawa Singh claimed all the murders and felonies dubbed honour crimes were in fact all committed by families that could not bear the ignominy of their own kin marrying in violation of caste traditions. “Polit-icians who dare to ignore society will be doomed to oblivion,” he said.