Health Minister Stirs up a Horny's...err.. Hornet's Nest

Darkha Butt :Good evening and welcome to another episode of We the Feeble. Today a raging debate across the nation over Health Minister Nhulam Gabi Azad’s remarks that men having sex with men is unnatural and a disease. The health minister’s remarks have created a furore across and is seen as insensitive towards minorities. To get the bigger picture on this we have today in our panel four eminent personalities. Spokesperson for the Congress Party – Tanish Mewari, Mr.Savi Rhankar Prasad of the BJP, Bahesh Mhatt –filmmaker and social thinker and Krinda Barat of the CPI.

Darkha Butt: I’ll start with you Tanish, what do you have to say about the health minister’s comments today

Tanish Mewari: I have only heard media reports of the so called comments made by the health minister. Until such time I can peruse a draft of his speech, it is difficult for me to comment on the same or say what the party stand is on the issue. The health minister’s comments are not necessarily the views of the party or the Undoubtedly Pitiable Alliance(UPA) government at the centre

DArkha: Savi Rhankar Prasad? Is the health minister justified in his comments, or has he erred here

Savi Rhankar: Darkha, I have here the full transcript of the health minister’s speech and I have gone through it thoroughly.

Firstly I will bring to the notice of your audience the UNAIDS and WHO charters on the issue of homosexuality, which clearly mandates that nations must make legislations pertaining to this type of people. This government has failed to do that

Secondly, this is yet another incident which goes to show that Prime Minister Sanmohan Mingh is weak and not in control of his government but only under the remote control of Gonia Sandhi. He must therefore take full moral responsibility over the comments of the purportedly immoral activites as mentioned by the health minister and resign.

Darkha: A quick rebuttal to that Tanish

Tanish : I want to say only one thing, that the issue raised by the health minister is not a new one. It has been there for a few years now, so I want to ask what did the Notionally Democratic Alliance(NDA) do to prevent this present state of affairs when it was in power. And you also see what it is doing in Karnataka today

Savi Rhankar(speaking out of turn): Darkha, the issue brought out by the health minister has been relevant and taken worrying proportions only under the misrule of the Undoubtedly Pitiable Alliance government. Most importantly, the people of the country have lost faith in this government as it’s worms continue to spill out of the can. The Prime Minister must explain to the people of the country what is meant by the health ministers remarks. We will take up this issue in the next session of Parliament and demand an answer

Darkha: Right. Bahesh Mhatt, in this age of facebook ,twitter and google, is the health minister right in decrying the rights of citizens to have sex with whom they prefer?

Bahesh: Let me start by saying this Barkha, there are actually some countries that have passed a law, stating that having sex with porcupines is illegal. Few other countries are silent on the issue of having sex with animals…..

Darkha: We are talking of men having intercourse with men here Bahesh, whats your point

Bahesh: Im coming to that. I totally disagree with the health minister that it is unnatural. Having sex with a doll or toy would be unnatural, but not with another living thing irrespective of gender. But the fault does not lie with the health minister, but the ministry of information and broadcasting. You watch the television today acts of sex are there on almost every channel including spiritual channels like “Sort of Living” to news channels. But the problem lies in the visuals that are allowed to be consumed by the youth. While a wildlife channel will clearly show animals engaged in sex with commentary, its difficult for an innocent viewer to assume that the animals are from opposite sexes and when it comes to western movies with love-making scenes, private parts and nudity are often blurred and the youth cannot actually see that the screen contains a man and a woman. The subtitles don’t help in showing the difference. So the real culprit is the I&B ministry.

Darkha: I get what you are trying to say, the health minister is actually trying to implicate the I&B minister. Is this a clear indication of an ongoing civil war within the government as a cabinet reshuffle nears.Krinda, your views on that

Krinda: This is a deliberate attempt to give a break to the usual spin-doctor of the UPA, Mr. Sigvijay Dingh and an attempt to divert the country from the main issue of the Indo-US nuclear deal

Darkha: But isn’t that outdated and it doesn’t matter since you are no longer part of the alliance

Krinda: You see, this issue is also related to the deal and only we had seen it through and through. As part of the 123 deal, a percentage of the profits made by the American’s from the sale of reactors to india will go towards paying for the social security of LGBT in the USA. The health minister is just aiding the prime-minister in his one pet project so that the process can be expedited. We will take up the indo-us deal in the monsoon session of Parliament

Darkha: Whether it rains or not, it is going to be one stormy monsoon session. That’s all we have time for today. Thank you for joining us