Hailing the recent Supreme Court verdict which rejects the Delhi High Court move to decriminalise homosexuality, DR. S. AUSAF SAIED VASFI takes stock of the natural corollary of the filth called sodomy and lesbianism.
The fundamental question is: Is morality, or sexual morality to be exact, a relative term that may undergo change in meaning with the change of time or an eternal value that brooks no change and defy the demands of time to ensure its pristine purity?
This zillion dollar issue has been mischievously left untouched by the defenders of sodomy and lesbianism. This perfidy, however, made their task of bamboozling the gullible easy.
DEFENCE POINTS
Their points of defence are:
1) Each and every individual has a right of choice. Who are the moralists, or the government for that matter, to usurp their fundamental right as long as their act is consensual and free from force?
2) As the said act has taken place after consent, what they do is not harmful for any individual or society.
3) A certain mythology permits its followers to do whatever they want. They say lord Ayappa was born Hari-Hare (Vishnu and Shiva). Pope Francis said on Jan 29, “If a person is gay and seeks God and has goodwill, who am I to judge him?”
4) Homosexuality controls population.
5) The doctors do not disapprove of same sex as it is natural.
6) The homosexuals constitute a vote bank. Their en bloc votes prove decisive in defeats and victories of lawmakers.
One honestly feels unnecessary to join hands with gays who begin from a flawed premise and end at a flawed conclusion.
CHASTITY AND FIDELITY
Principles and values like chastity, fidelity and faithfulness to the spouses are not, and have never been, relative. They are absolute terms. They carry sanctity. Matrimonial alliance is an act of worship which prevents the spouses from going astray.
Freedom given to citizens has always been up to a point beyond which no one can go. This ‘Laxman Rekha’ cannot ever be crossed. The argument pertaining to personal choice, fundamental rights, coupled with consensus, is simply redundant and has no relevance here. As far as religious sanction is concerned, at least Christianity, Judaism and particularly Islam strictly prohibit this sleaze. But Khajuraho, Konarak and Kama Sutra definitely tell a better-not-to-be-told tale.
The banner in which the Congress top brass have reacted to the December 12 Supreme Court verdict, general public and the way the other political parties as well as women’s lib organisations have commented upon the judgement creates the misreading impression that the over-a-billion-strong plural nation is anxious about criminalisation of sodomy and lesbianism. Not a single English language daily did an objective edit which had cared to discuss the issue from the moral angle.
MAD OR COWARD?
Has the entire plural polity of ours gone mad? We feel it has not gone mad. It has become coward and has no guts to say sternly no to the filth.
However, belatedly the RSS and the BJP have, questioning the move, asked: How an unnatural act can be called natural? Both the RSS and the BJP chiefs have registered their cavil. We Muslims laud the dawn of the reason. But surprisingly the AAP, Mr. Kejriwal’s party, preferred to swim with the polluted current.
The decade we live in is that of young boys and young girls. Their unfortunate parents never cared to give healthy sanskars or inculcate healthy moral values in them. Many parents complain about this mushroom growth which now is a vote bank which is capable of felling power-drunk Hitlers, self-centred giants and dreaded rogues in political outfits. It is the fear of this generation which scares people from telling the truth. And this generation is given to lasciviousness. It looks as if extra-marital sex runs into their veins. These predators do not care to know who is what. From a ten-month old female child to 80-year old lady have been raped in New Delhi, often referred to the rape-capital of India. Foreign female students have been found reluctant to get admission in universities here. It is not we who are saying so. It is the envoy of Great Britain, who, the other day shocked the thinking sections of Bharat.
A DISEASE, A PERVERSION
As is common knowledge, India lives in villages and rural areas. Do you think a woman would digest her lesbian daughter or a lesbian daughter-in-law or a gay son or a gay son-in-law or even a pervert neighbour? According to the scriptures, honoured by all and sundry, sodomy and lesbianism are a disease, a perversion. See the terminology and diction used by the high-ups who are anxious to overturn the Supreme Court judgement. In a statement released by the Congress Party Sonia Gandhi said “she was disappointed” that the Supreme Court criminalised homosexuality. She hoped that Parliament will address the issue and uphold the Constitutional guarantee of life and liberty to all citizens of India, including those directly affected by the judgement. She added: The court (High Court) had “wisely removed an archaic, repressive and unjust law that infringed on the basic human rights enshrined in our Constitution. The Constitution has given us great legacy, a legacy of liberalism and openness that enjoins us to combat prejudice and discrimination.”
As far as we know the Dec 12 Supreme Court judgement has nothing that may disappoint anybody. How on earth a profane act denounced by all who are noble-minded and noble-hearted can be described archaic, repressive and unjust? Is sodomy, or can sodomy be ever described as, a basic human right? Yes, we are legatees of a great legacy, a legacy of liberalism and openness. But this does not refer to perverse acts, hated by the civilized.
WORTHY OF WEIGHT?
Have you any idea about the gay population in India? Obviously, it must be formidable. That is perhaps why there is hoo-ha on the streets, roads and sideways. According to the government, in 2012 there were 25 lakh gays. Other estimates put their number at 7.13 per cent of the total population. According to the latest estimate they are about 100 million. Is this figure worthy of weight in a country whose population is well over a billion? What goes uncommented is: Is the gay’s case worthy enough to enact a law?
It looks as if the advocates of the prohibited are more enthusiastic about the legitimacy of the illegitimate than the westerners. The figures they cite to prove their non-point is: Homosexuality is legal in all European states. Same sex marriage has been legalised in EU States while 14 European countries have legalised civil unions or other forms of recognition by the same sex couples.
A HIGH RISK GROUP
What problems are there now for gays? The health and family welfare ministry is of the view it will now prevent vulnerable communities from accessing health facilities for the fear of stigma. “We are concerned that this will discourage people from seeking health care and consulting with doctors, counsellors and health workers.” So said the ministry secretary Mr. Keshav Desiraju. The LGBT, or lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, is defined as a high risk group by the National Aids Control Organisation – now the Department of Aids Control – with HIV infection, prevalent among man having sex with man, being the highest between 6.54 and 7.23 per cent. What has to be noted is that HIV is the second most vulnerable lethal after use of drugs.
It would be beneficial for the powers-that-be to know that the 170 million strong Muslim community of plural Bharat is opposed tooth and nail to legalising sodomy and lesbianism. How the government is to do what it intends to without consultation from the largest chunk of population that firmly stands for no to this filth!