Leaders of around 300 khap panchayats on Sunday held a 'mahapanchayat' in Haryana's Jind and threatened to stage a massive protest if their demand to impose a ban on live-in relationships and same-sex marriages were not accepted.

Members from khap Panchayats from Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh took part in the meeting.

Chief of Benain Khap, Raghubir Nain, said, "Live-in relationships should be banned. Same-sex marriages should be banned as even the animals avoid this".

"We also discussed about love marriage. The khaps are not against the love marriage, but the parents' consent is a must because no parent wants to harm his or her children," he said, adding that the Khaps were against "marriage within the same gotra (clan)".

Nain said that the khap panchayat representatives would also meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi and pressure the government to amend the laws.

If our demands are not met and the appropriate law is not amended, we will launch an agitation," he said.

"A 51-member committee is being constituted for the cause," he added.

Notably, female khap leader Santosh Dahia also said that live-in relationships should be banned.

"The biggest issue that was discussed is live-in relationships and marriages within the same gotra. Live-in relationships are resulting in the breaking of family systems because it has been legalised. This has badly affected society, children, and our culture," she said.

Dahia said that women were the "worst affected" due to live-in relationships, as their husbands and brothers would "start living with a woman of their choice by neglecting them".

"She cannot go to get justice as live-in is legal and that's why women should fight against live-in culture," she said.

"The issue of same gotra marriage has wrecked the social fabric, besides creating genetic problems which multiply after same clan marriages are solemnised," Dahia said.

Source: India Today