One Says Out With 377, Other Says It’s A ‘Genetic Handicap’: The Word From BJP Ministers

By Abhishek Jha: 

It is not surprising to see BJP rant against homosexuality. That 377 is their preferred position is no surprise either. Their primary allies, the Sangh Parivar, their Hindutva vote bank cosies up to this one position. Therefore, one should not doubt our honourable Union Law Minister when he says that he was misquoted. After all, the reporter even begged pardon for the misquotation.

However, there is a problem when things are so terribly wrong. It was only about a month ago that India Today published a report on doctors performing conversion therapy on homosexuals for a huge sum. The therapy included using electric shocks. Corrective rape, often at the insistence or with the permission of parents, is another such vile fallout of our norms. And all this happens not in some rural hinterland, in families that have never had any education; but very much also within your urban, educated, development-hungry space. One cannot, therefore, even accuse the current government, its ministers, of pandering to some fringe extreme-right group. However, there is no exculpation for the BJP. When the Supreme Court turned down the Delhi HC order trashing 377, Congress leaders at least had the face to take cue from the SC order and hint at a possible change, diffident though they were.

What Subramaniam Swamy said on Twitter though is even more noteworthy. What does he imply when he says that “homos are genetically handicapped“?

The warning sign here is that he does not even resort to the old Indian culture and customs rhetoric. In the medical terms “genetically” and “handicapped“, he seeks to mould science itself to the shape of the obtuse rut in which his party is stuck. One even feels like clapping at this genius. How else can this government reconcile development with its position on 377? [envoke_twitter_link]Congratulations on making yourself a homologous unit again[/envoke_twitter_link].