It is an oddity that those who advocate private choice when they are ordinary citizens become patronizing the moment they become MPs or Ministers. This is true even of those described as the Youngistan in Parliament. Witness their reactions to the Section 377 judgment. There are questions about the territorial jurisdiction of this judgment, and the government will probably drop the hot potato of repeal. (We should repeal 377 and amend rape laws and those for minors.)

One can understand spokespersons of parties being guarded, though a treasurer of such a party was widely known to have such predilections. Ditto for religious leaders. But why are individual MPs (barring Supriya Sule) so hesitant to welcome private rights?

Oddly, the CPM is the only party that believes in private choice on 377, though not on economic matters. And if other parties don’t welcome private rights on 377, they never will on economic issues. Therefore, we will be stuck with Chapter 1 of the Survey.