Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on July 5 described homosexuality as a “disease” and regretted that despite being “unnatural”, it now afflicts a substantial number of people in India. “The disease of ‘Men having Sex with Men’ (MSM), which was found more in the developed world, has now unfortunately come to our country and there are a substantial number of such people in India,” Azad said, speaking at a convention on HIV/AIDS at Vigyan Bhawan in the Capital.
The AIDS convention, organised by a forum of parliamentarians, was also attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, some union ministers and chief ministers, as well as MPs, MLAs, zila parishad chairpersons and mayors.