The introduction of the private members' Bill, which sought amendment to the IPC by seeking to "substitute a new section for Section 377", was objected to by BJP member Nishikant Dubey, who said he was opposing it not because of any religion, vedas or 'puranas' but because of the Supreme Court judgement.
Reacting to the development, Tharoor said, "It strikes me as extremely intolerant because at this stage, it's a very routine procedure.
The Congress leader and former Union Minister said he "will move the Bill again when the session is convened next to ensure individual privacy is possible".
The bulk of the votes opposing "even the introduction of the Bill" came from BJP, claimed Tharoor, although he also noted that there were "some members" of the ruling party who "seemed to have" voted to allow him to introduce it.
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Saying that "it is not the government's responsibility to decide how people behave in their private life", the Thiruvananthapuram MP said, "I have not proposed the deletion; I have just proposed amendment and the purpose of the same is to ensure consensual sex between consenting adults will be legally possible. That is, we will keep the government out of our bedroom."
"That there are so many people in the ruling party present on the government benches who are expressing their intolerance and homophobia in this manner is very revelatory," he charged.
"After all, what we are talking about is human freedom, human privacy, human dignity," he added.
Tharoor expressed confidence that if the public starts "waking up" to the reality of what is being discussed and what is at stake, he will have at least succeeded in "raising" consciousness about the issue.
Proposing a solution to the vexed equation between the
two countries, Tharoor stressed on people-to-people contact and liberalisation of the visa regime.
"What we can do is to try and change the stakes in Pakistan and the way to do that is by dramatically opening up people-to-people contact. Let us be unilaterally generous with visas, starting off with specified categories of people -- writers, diplomats, business people, even business people working for military run companies.
"Let us give them a chance to come here because I have never heard of a Pakistani who has come to India and not fallen in love with the place. They have the shock of recognition and dismay of seeing how much more open and interesting and creative the society is," he said.
"Let us massively open up trade for them. I will even encourage military owned companies to trade with India. The more Pakistani companies have a stake in good relations with India, the less happy they will be if their military fails to rein in the LeT attacks in the future," he said.