Minister of health and family welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad has been receiving brickbats from all quarters for his regressive comments describing homosexuality as a “disease” and something “unnatural.”
Azad received a sharp rebuke from UNAIDS executive director Michel Sidibe who state that “UNAIDS does not regard homosexuality as a disease.” On the contrary, Sidibe stressed that, “India’s successful response to HIV AIDS is possible due to the strong participation of communities of MSM, sex workers, people who inject drugs and transgenders, backed by a strong and progressive National AIDS policy.”
Bollywood, activists and the medical fraternity were also up in arms against him.
Manohar Elavarthi, founder of the trans-gender organisation Sangama led a protest march at the town hall in Bengaluru against his comment. Actress Celina Jaitley, a supporter of the rights and equality of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community (LGBTC) and a strong supporter of the gay rights movement in India, said, "I m shocked to hear that our health minister would make a statement about homosexuality calling it a disease.” The WHO does not think so Sir!.” “Dear honourable Mr health minister, the World Health Organisation (WHO) removed homosexuality from its list of diseases in 1990,” Celina said.
Chennai-based medical practitoner Dr Sunder Raman expressed surprise as to how a health minister could make such a remark while talking to grass level constituents. “By doing so, he will only help perpetuate greater prejudice. This was a very fundamentalist remark to have made and is all the more surprising since it has been made after he has just returned from a six-day jaunt to New York where he attended a UN convention on HIV. If his views were so intolerant, he should not have gone.”
A clearly rattled minister held a hurriedly convened press conference where he tried to defend himself saying he was “quoted out of context” and had “never intended to hurt the sentiments of any section of the society".
Mr Azad claimed, "It was not my intention at all to hurt the sentiments of any section of society ‘maintaining that the numbers of MSMs were on the rise in our country and the prevalence of HIV amongst this group was also on the rise. "It is an issue of concern for us and is thus a major challenge for the health ministry especially since it is a challenge for us to identify them, counsel them and treat them. My worry is in favour of those MSMs and not against them", he claimed.