Tamil Nadu to Bring in Law Against Honour Killing

Chennai: Announcing a commission headed by a former High Court judge to prepare the ground for bringing in a law that would put an end to honour killing in the State, Chief Minister M K Stalin stressed on the need for a public campaign to create an equal society opposed to any domination and rooted in love with thoughts on egalitarianism and social justice as guiding principles.

Addressing the Assembly, on the last day of its winter session on Friday, Stalin referred to some members making a demand to put an end to honour killing during the debate on the supplementary demands for grants and said retired judge K N Bhasha would head the commission comprising legal experts, progressive thinkers and sociologists to make necessary recommendations for stopping the cruel practice.

While the commission would elicit the views of all sections of people including those affected by honour killing, political movements and social organizations, it was the duty of everyone to convert the campaign against the evil into a public movement since punishment for the crime and propaganda seeking reformation should be used as the sword and the shield in the fight, he said.

Calling for the elimination of all domineering attitudes, he said that honour killing happening once in a while not only shook the people but also made them hang their heads in shame because behind the crime lurked a obvious male domination that wanted to deprive women of their right to decide their own destiny, Stalin said.

Quoting ancient Tamil poets Thirvalluvar and Avvaiyar to drive home the point that equality and a casteless society had been the aspirations of Tamil society since time immemorial, he said that when caste differences crept in at a later stage, scholars and reformers like Ayodhyadasa Pandithar, Periyar E V Ramasamy, V Kalyanasundaram, Bharatidasan and C N Annadurai sowed the seeds of reformation in the minds of the people, creating the Tamil language and race identity.

Social movements came in to fight for equal opportunities and equal power in education and jobs when the social reformation was supported by the implementation of laws and the devising of policies during the tenure of M Karunanidhi as Chief Minister, he said.

Though the present DMK government, following the footsteps of Karunanidhi, had introduced a slew of social reforms to do away with social differences and enmity through the principles of social justice, equality, fraternity, socialism, equal rights, educational rights and rights for power, random untoward incidents of honour killing caused pain, he said.

Should the Tamil society that was respected all through the world for its intellectual abilities be seen as fighting among its own members in Tamil Nadu, Stalin asked and made it clear that no killing of another citizen for whatever reason would be tolerated.

Though stringent police action had always been taken as a norm in incidents of honour killing, now the Government had decided to bring in the law to address the problem, he said.