By D R Chaudhry

HARYANA CHIEF MINISTER AND KHAP PANCHYAT

Bhupinder Singh Hooda, CM, Haryana has given a clean chit to khap panchayats by stating that khaps have no role in honour crimes (The Tribune, October 6th). Facts, however, speak otherwise.

It were khap panchayats which declared married couples as siblings in Jondhi and Asanda villages of Jhajjar district. The decision had to be reversed after High Court’s directive. It were khaps which declared marriages void in Paintawas and Samaspur in Bhiwani district and they had to retract after High court intervention and public outcry.

It was a community/khap leader whose instigation led to brutal murder of Manoj-Babli and it is he who organized the social boycott of Manoj’s family in the village. The trial court sentenced him to life imprisonment for his role in honor killing. Ved Pal’s murder was the handiwork of Bhanwala khap which had decided to teach him a lesson for violating the neighbourhood norm in marriage. Ram Dia, head of Bhanwala khap, was sentenced to life imprisonment along with 11 others.

A big khap conclave was held at Kurukshetra on April 13, 2010 where a committee was formed under the chairmanship of Gathwala khap head to collect rupees ten from each family to help killers of Manoj-Babli. This is a clear cut proof of khap leaders extending financial help to convicts in a well publicized case of honour killing. Examples can be multiplied.

Khaps have fostered a culture of intolerance in the name of tradition in villages which subjects a family with ‘deviant’ daughter to taunts and sneers which makes its life in the village unbearable. This drives its members to commit murder to win peace. It is this psyche that drove the father of the girl in Girnawati, near Rohtak, to commit brutal murder of the couple recently, though there is no direct involvement of khap in this case.

Khap zealots should change their mindset in tune with the changing times and concentrate on larger social issues instead of meddling in marital affairs only if they wish to earn social relevance in the age of globalization.