‘Spouse to Sibling’ – height of Panchayat Raj
February 1, 2010
Haryana: A couple got married three years ago and now they are blessed with lovely son and they were enjoying happily married life. Suddenly the panchayat of village said that the ‘gotra’ of both of them is same and hence they can’t continue as wife and husband in future and they ordered them to live like brother and sister. This incident happened in Rohtak, Haryana.
Satish Berwal of Kheri village in this district was married to Kavita, a resident of Bhagi village in Jhajjar district, three years ago. The couple also has a 10-month-old boy. This decision was taken in the panchayat meeting that lasted over six-hours on Saturday at Kheri. “Kavita is from Beniwal gotra whereas the groom is from Berwal gotra. In our village, people from these two gotras cannot marry each other as they are considered brother and sister. We have directed them to end their marriage and to start a relation of brother and sister,” said a panchayat official here on Sunday. “Kavita is free to return to her parents’ house along with her son. We have given them an ultimatum of 28 days to follow this order and if they fail to adhere to deadline then strict action will be taken against them,” he said. The panchayat has also directed Satish’s father Azad Singh to disown his son from all the property and belongings and to deposit Rs 300,000 in the name of his grandson in a bank.
Such notorious decisions are possible only in Haryana panchayats. A couple lived like couple for three year and produced their off spring and now they have to live like brother and sister. What is most astonishing is State Government and police department are doing nothing and they only fear that violence should not break in the village due to this decision. Such decisions are possible only in Indian villages. High court says yes for even gay marriage and here the panchayat says no for even opposite sex marriage. Where are we heading towards? We should ask panchayat now whether for gay marriage also gotra should be different. What do these panchayat do if some lesbians got married in their village? They check their gotra first and then worry about the gender I believe. This is the irony Indian democratic panchayat raj. We have people in our country who celebrated when court said gay sex is ok if it is consensual and so many religious organizations opposed it and now we have no one to oppose this panchayat raj decision. What this couple sorry siblings must be feeling now?
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