In my earlier post on the Delhi High Court’s historic judgement decriminalising same gender consensual sexual relationships, I had said that the religious protests have begun. Now they have gone for direct confrontation by approaching the Indian Supreme Court to challenge the verdict.

One challenge is from the self-styled Yoga guru Baba Ramdev. In his defence he says,

“Homosexual relationships, if encouraged, would bring population growth of a country to a halt…”

Well, I for one can’t see the harm in that! The current rate of population growth, by virtue of which we are going to overtake China as the most populous nation in the world, has never been something any Indian needs to be proud of. When I was growing up it was an evil that was straining the resources of our country. None of us growing up in the 80s can forget the birth control ads that were beamed continuously on our only television channel then, Doordarshan, the national channel – ‘Hum do, hamare do’ (We two, ours two!) was the motto of the 80s. But somewhere amidst the economic liberalisation of the 90s that message was lost and our huge population was looked upon advantageously as a huge market. All that makes economic sense I know, but in the long run it does not and will never make common sense. The resources are always limited and if the demand on them keeps growing there will be a point where they will fail to meet the hungry mouths that await them. It does already happen in India – let us not forget that our emerging super-power still has to face the embarrassing fact of starvation deaths. The problem is that, though the logic of birth control by now has been firmly etched upon the minds of the Indian urban middle class, the rural areas are still caught in the age-old paradox of safety in numbers.

I digress! To come back to Baba Ramdev, he says,

“…there is high risk of exposure of a large chunk of population to dangerous sexually transmitted disease including HIV/AIDS.”

A false interpretation again. As Ashok Row Kavi, a leading gay rights activist and the editor of India’s first magazine for gays, asserts, “…the ruling will help in HIV prevention. Gay men can now visit doctors and talk about their problems.” And may I add, without fear. Openness has never hurt any society. It is only when you create walls and barriers around something which is universal and natural that you damage society.

The other law suit is from astrologer Suresh Kumar Kaushal. I will not digress and go into the denunciation of astrology, a pseudo-science and a slur on civilised society, like I did with Ramdev’s comment on India’s population growth! I will rather focus on his utterances with regards to his legal challenge. He says,

“Even animals don’t indulge in such activities.”

Now that is an untruth, if there ever was one! I had referenced this article in an earlier post which clearly states that instances of homosexuality has been observed in other animals. Do read it and I will rest my case!