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A cocktail of crime, bigotry

D R. Chaudhry’s article, “Bringing khaps to justice” (Perspective, April 11) is a step forward to build public opinion against the khaps responsible for the ever-increasing honour killings.

Over the last five years, the khap panchayats, in the guise of maintaining the honour and pride of their community, has issued the most grotesque, barbarous and extremely disturbing diktats. No doubt, these existed since 600 AD in India and have managed their affairs independent of the law of the land, but those were medieval times when people were divided into clans.

No political party has the courage to take up the cases of honour killings and khap diktats. Moreover, there is total absence of law enforcement. Unless and until laws accurately define and punish these anachronisms, khap panchayats will continue to brew a poisonous cocktail of crime, ignorance and bigotry.

Dr VITULL K. GUPTA, Bathinda

The writer’s comments are candid and timely. He has echoed the sentiments of most people by disapproving of these obsolete bodies. Khap panchayats and gotra rows are showing Haryana, otherwise a very progressive state, in a poor light.

Despite the state’s modernisation and rapid progess, these mindless killings are giving an impression that we still live in a medieval period. Khap panchayats are out of place and need to be strictly dealt with by the government.

Haryana is the fourth most progressive state in the country today with Gurgaon as the modern IT capital, Kurukshetra and Hissar the educational hubs, and Bhiwani being the country's Olympic medal winner. Haryana is a highly secular and patriotic state with a huge contribution to the defence forces.

Let’s hope the menace of khap panchayats will be eradicated soon. These must be replaced by progressive panchayat bodies which are in tune with the times and ethos of the state.

Col R.D. SINGH, Ambala Cantt

III

The writer’s views are misplaced. These panchayats consist of nominated village notables who command great respect and trust in the rural community. Ch. Randhir Singh of Badli and Dada Ghasi Ram of Ahulana villages are still remembered for pronouncing historic judgements.

A village in Haryana is considered a solid unit of brotherhood or a family tree. Here everybody is a brother or a sister of one another. Hence, the incident of a boy marrying a girl of the same village even of different gotra is intolerable in the social milieu.

This is because a girl cannot perform the dual role of a daughter and a bahu in the same village. Accordingly, the khap panchayats perforce have to annul such unsocial and perverted marriages. Some hardcore families cannot bear the ignominy of their daughter eloping with the boy of the same village or vice versa and take extreme steps and panchayats have nothing to do with such incidents.

RAM NIWAS MALIK, Gurgaon

Making of Maya
I read Khushwant Singh’s article, “Behenji, beware of sycophants (Saturday Extra, April 10). I fully agree with the views expressed by the writer that Mayawati, as soon as she became the Chief Minister of UP, began acquiring large tracts of real estate in different cities, including Delhi. Though the money was collected in the name of party funds, it was deposited in her name or that of her close relative.
Recently, she was garlanded in currency notes of Rs 1000. She has given preference to making her marble statues in party and cities. Now, the time has come when she should think of the betterment of the common people.
Subhash C. Taneja,, Rohtak