â??Panchayati Rajâ?? bullies yet another couple in Haryana

NI Wire

New Delhi

Sat, 01 Sep 2007: 

Sep 01: Once again Panchayat became self-appointed custodian of tradition and culture and dictated its term to the society and separated the married coupleThe fault of the married couple is that they belong to the same clan.

In simple terms their ‘Gotra’ is the same and they cannot get married as they share a sister and brother relationship for belonging to the same clan.

In North-Indian tradition, marriage between the boy and girl belonging to the same ‘Gotra’ is prohibited in scriptures. The incident is not new or unique in its kind that is also in Haryana.

The worst aspect of the whole incident is that couple has got a child who has been given to somebody else. Ten days old baby has been taken away from mother and handed over to some relative. Both have been sent to their homes. In the biggest democracy of the world there seems least space for individual freedom.

The incident took place in Kallahari village panchayat in Haryana where panchayat did not recognise this marriage of the couple on the ground of the same clan. Pawan and Kavita eloped, got married and flew to Mumbai.

Couple returned to the village when Kavita was to give birth to their first child.

Boy has also been fined Rs. 65000 to the panchayat. None of the couple is happy with the decision but find themselves helpless to take any action against panchayat decision as the decision has been forwarded by the minister of state for co-operatives, Haryana.

“Gotra comes first and law is after that” says the minister.

Meanwhile, the boy has filed a complaint against the village Panchayat charging them with forcible separation of him and his wife.