Union Minister Nitin Gadkari's remarks surfaced on a day when the Andhra Pradesh High Court upheld the right of a lesbian couple to live together, affirming their freedom to choose partners.
In a recent YouTube podcast, Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari termed live-in relationships as 'wrong' and 'against the rules of society'. The union minister furthermore added that same-sex marriages would eventually lead to the collapse of the established social structure.
Gadkari's remarks surfaced on a day when the Andhra Pradesh High Court upheld the right of a lesbian couple to live together, affirming their freedom to choose partners.
In an interview conducted by independent journalist Samdish Bhatia, Gadkari recalled his visit to the British Parliament, where he became aware of the fact that the United Kingdom's biggest problem was people opting for live-in relationships and not marriage. The interview released four days ago, has been reported on Thursday by media.
“I went to the British Parliament in London where I met the Prime Minister and the foreign minister and they asked what the biggest issue in their country was. I said poverty, unemployment, starvation etc. When I asked them the same question, they said the biggest issue in European countries was that majority young population was not getting married”, Gadkari told Bhatia, as pr a report by the Hindustan Times.
Answering a question about his personal opinion on live-in relationships, the union minister remarked that live-in relationships were "wrong". While denying the need to ban divorces in India, the minister reiterated that "live-in relationships are not good".
"If you don't marry, how will you have children? What will be the future of such children? If you go against the societal structure, what impact will it have on people?" he further added.
Emphasising the need for a balanced sex ratio in the country, he reportedly said, “Why is this society stable, the proportion of ladies and gents is right, tomorrow if the proportion of ladies will be 1500 and men will be 1000 then we would have to permit men to have two wives,” Gadkari said, adding that same-sex marriage would "lead to the collapse of the social structure.''
Union Minister Gadkari's remarks came a year after a five-judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court refused to grant legal recognition to same-sex marriage but pitched for equal rights to queer people.
Back in 2018, five Supreme Court judges overruled the apex court's own 2013 decision and partially struck down Section 377, a controversial colonial-era law that banned consensual gay sex.