Azad's wisdom

The headlines have been about Ghulam Nabi Azad calling homosexuality unnatural as well as a disease. But it’s what the health minister said after producing that standard prejudiced rhetoric that bears closer attention. Azad pointed out that while female sex workers usually live in clusters and, therefore , can be ‘identified’ , MSMs (men having sex with men, that’s the minister’s contribution to science, social science and language ) are not always found together.

And that, the minister said, is a problem. Presumably, if gay citizens lived, as the minister wants them to, in clusters, then health officials could easily identify them and then... then what? That’s the question — what did the minister have in mind when he lamented what he felt was the singular lack of sensitivity on the part of gay citizens in not living in identifiable ghettos?

Identifying gays is a challenge, the minister said. If it were not, what would Azad have proposed? In a way, we should be glad the minister didn’t elaborate. In the past, certain leaders refrained from showing such restraint, with disastrous consequences for the world at large. Our minister cannot be accused of lack of discretion, can he? But what would Azad do were the Supreme Court to agree with the Delhi High Court and decriminalise homosexuality?

Well, Azad would need to become an MSMP — Minister Seeking Mental Peace — and there’s no better place for such MSMPs than Baba Ramdev’s ashram. The Baba’s views on gays are closely aligned to the minister’s . And there’s an opportunity for Dr Singh, too — make Azad the Congress’s permanent representative to the Baba’s HQ. A senior Congress leader always near the Baba; the latter will feel much mollified. But wait, won’t that create a vacancy in the Union health ministry? Ah...