MP hopes to get khaps power to rule on ‘same gotra’ marriages

Same gotra and same village marriages are ruining the social fabric in Haryana, said BJP member of Parliament from Bhiwani-Mahendragarh constituency Dharambir Singh.

While talking to Hindustan Times few days after his thumping win in the Lok Sabha elections for the second time, by a margin of 4.5 lakh votes, the MP said he was worried the way ‘modernisation’ was shaping up in Haryana as it would escalate enmities within families and between neighbours. 

“Same gotra and same village marriages may be normal in south India. But in Haryana, we need to preserve some traditions. Boys and girls of same villages and gotras, considered brothers and sisters, are marrying leading to enmities in rural areas. It is a big problem and I will advocate in Parliament about giving some judicial powers at panchayat level to find amicable solutions to it rather than flooding our courts and furthering the problem,” Dharambir said. 

Same gotra and same village marriages have been opposed in Haryana for long by khap panchayats and other such social and traditional bodies. Couples defying the diktats have often been killed by families in the name of honour.

Last year, the Supreme Court had rapped the khap panchayats in Haryana for interfering in consensual marriages of adults.