“Live-in is a dangerous disease…” BJP MP wants law to ban it

“Live-in relationships are a dangerous disease” said BJP MP Dharambir Singh in Loksabha on Thursday while urging the Centre for a law to ban it. Dharambir Singh, an MP from Haryana’s Bhiwani-Mahendergarh, during a discussion on matters of urgent public importance, told the Lok Sabha that this live-in culture was against the Indian value system. He claimed this “disease” was spreading hatred and evil in society.

“Indian culture is known for its philosophy of 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam…Duniya hame jis sabhyata aur sanskriti ke liye janti hain, agar yehi haal raha toh hamara culture dam tod dega aur unke (Western world) aur hamare me koi fark nahi rahega. (The civilisation and culture that India is known for will die if this practice continues and there won’t be any difference between the West and India). Not only this live-in culture is ruining our culture but also spreading hatred and evils in the society”, said Singh on the floor of the house

Singh cited the case of Shraddha Walkar & Aftab Poonawala of last year and added that Poonawala was in a live-in with Walkar when she was killed. He called the crime “the result of a live-in relationship,”. He also highlighted that divorce cases have increased within love marriages and feared at this rate the US record of divorces would soon be matched. He claimed divorce in arranged marriages is far less since they have the approval of families. He thereby wanted the consent of the parents of both bride and groom mandatory in cases of love marriages.

“Divorce rate is about 1.1% in India as compared with America which has a rate of about 40%. It has been found that the rate of divorce in arranged marriages is very less. However, there is a lot of increase in divorce cases recently among love marriage couples” said Singh while adding that his suggestion would be ”that the consent of mother and father of the bride and groom be made mandatory in love marriages because in large parts of the country, marriage does not happen in the same 'gotra' and due to love marriages there are a lot of conflicts and “several families are getting destroyed”​