By The Editorial Board (The Telegraph)

One of the founding principles upon which the ideal of Indian democracy rests is the fundamental right of all citizens to be free of discrimination in every sphere of public life. And yet, the transgender persons (protection of rights) bill, 2019, which was passed in the Rajya Sabha in spite of the unequivocal opposition it faced from the very community it concerns, is suggestive of the violation of this basic right.

The bill was passed in the Upper House after 74 members of parliament voted against an Opposition motion to send the document to a select committee for deeper scrutiny, with only 55 MPs casting their vote in its favour. The implications of these developments are worrying, not least because they highlight the aversion in the Indian political fraternity to significant course corrections in policy.

The absence of a culture of scrutiny and legislative overhaul is likely to have direct, adverse consequences for a large section of the population that has been discriminated against in several ways for decades, and whose reservations about the bill have been in the public domain for a long time. Read more via Telegraph