The Centre has asked all States and UTs to make sure that members of the LGBTQIA+ community are not discriminated against in prisons. The advisory apparently comes in the wake of acts of violence committed by insensitive jail staff against the LGBTQIA+ community on account of their sexual orientation and gender dysphoria, that were brought to the Centre's notice. While the advisory is a welcome move on the part of the Centre, it seems almost out of character.
It is well known that there is no love lost between the government and the LGBTQIA+ community. They were mute spectators when the SC re-criminalised Section 377 of the IPC in December 2013 (after it had been de-criminalised by the Delhi HC in July 2009), barely five months before the BJP came to power. Nor did they congratulate the community when, in September 2018, a larger bench of the SC, responding to a curative petition, reverted to the 2009 judgement of the Delhi HC, reading down Section 377 to exclude consenting adult LGBTQIA members from its purview. What stopped them then from congratulating us on our victory? It would have won them so much goodwill.
There were indeed people in the BJP like the late Arun Jaitley who were supportive of the LGBTQIA+ community. In 2016, Jaitley thought that it was about time the SC gave a favourable verdict on the scrapping of Section 377. But then there were others in the BJP, like Subramanian Swamy, who has gone on air to suggest that the September 2018 judgement isn't necessarily the end of the road for the community—all it needed was a seven-judge bench to overturn the verdict of the SC's five-judge bench. Of course, this hasn't happened, and most likely never will, but the point is that in making such a statement Swamy was expressing his displeasure at our victory.
But then, what happens in 2023? The LGBTQIA+ community that has been pressing for the legalisation of same-sex marriage and civil unions since 2018 narrowly lost the case. Once again, the 2023 judgement reflects the Vatican-like view of the Centre (that was regularly asked its opinion on the matter by the SC) that marriage is a sacred institution that can only happen between a man and a woman, and nothing in the world can change that.
Other things happened after September 2018 that prove the government's hostility towards the community. Justice Saurabh Kirpal, one of India's only out gay judges, was refused his elevation to the SC, despite being qualified and recommended for the post. The devious reason provided for the refusal wasn't, of course, his sexual orientation, but that his partner was a foreign national!
Award-winning filmmaker Onir was refused permission by the Defence Ministry at the last minute to shoot a biopic on the life of Major J Suresh, who quit the army because he was gay. This, even though the CBFC had okayed his script. An angry Onir wondered why he was being prevented from making his film when homosexuality was no longer a crime in India.
In some cities of Maharashtra, including Pune, where the BJP is in power along with the Eknath Shinde faction of the Shiv Sena and the Ajit Pawar faction of the NCP, hijras have been forbidden by the police from begging on the streets. This has reduced them to a life of starvation.
And so on.
In light of this trajectory, perhaps the only conclusion that one can draw is that if the Centre has softened its stand towards the LGBTQIA+ community, and is now concerned about our welfare in prison (of all things), it is because the electorate has taught them a lesson by failing to give them an absolute majority in the Lok Sabha. They now run a coalition government heavily dependent on the largesse of the JDU and the TDP and are acutely aware of the fact that the INDIA bloc has already made friendly overtures to the gay community. The Pink Vote, as some call it, is what they are after.
But whether they are willing to walk the talk, or this is only eyewash, only time will tell.
(The writer is a well-known author and former head of the English department at Savitribai Phule Pune University)
