Murder in the name of HONOR is no HONOR.

A series of honour killings graped the country this year bringing deep insights into the civil society. Young boys and girls were brutally murdered by their family members to protect the reputation of the family or community in parts of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and New Delhi. More then 1000 killings have been done in the name of honour killing. There are special reports on this site http://www.honourkilling.in/.

Even as the civil society fails to do anything about this crime the Human Rights Commission has raised voice over this issue. The propagators of such acts, the unofficial village councils, called the Khap Panchayats condemn marrying outside caste and religion and now even within same kinship (gotra), even when there is no biological connection between the latter.

In recent times, feminist activism has been pushing the states to take steps to address the issue. In response, Khap panchayats are claiming legitimacy over honour killings in defense of “our culture”.

Can Haryanvi or Western U.P culture be protected by honour killings. If so is the case then the first the priority of every state must be to protect our pride, which has been brought down due to corruption. Why don’t people raise their voice and kill the people in return who commit female infanticide. Why on such issues our culture isn’t threatened? What a contrast we see in our culture and polity. At one instance we talk about development in every possible field and on the other we such issues where minds fail to develop.

Under pressure from Human Rights watch to frame laws against the killings, the Indian Government has proposed amendments in the Indian Penal Code to ensure that individuals issuing diktats (harsh or authoritative statements) against couples can be charged with murder.

The political class of our country must not overlook this heinous crime and must address the issue with the Khap panchayats and must ask them to address issues of more importance like lack of inheritance among women, gender equations (which is a matter of concern in both Punjab and Haryana) and female foeticide .