The Gay Pride has been appropriated by the far Left

On 28^th June, 1969, Stonewall Inn in New York was raided by the police. The raid was part of many such instances where queer people were rounded up and crossdressing men were arrested. The raid on Stonewall Inn invoked protests from the queer community and quickly turned violent. Widespread protests lasted for a couple of days and spread to other cities in the US. The following year on the first anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, first Gay Pride marches were organized simultaneously in many US cities. The marches became a civil movement for recognition of gay rights in America. In the years following the first Gay Pride march, the movement spread to other countries.

India saw its first Gay Pride in 1999, in Kolkata. The movement however did not get much traction. It was only in 2008, that the first coordinated pride marches were held in many Indian cities. The colonial hangover on the Indian legal system meant that homosexuality was illegal and punishable under the Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. Various gay rights groups were fighting a long court battle to decriminalize homosexuality. The movement won a brief victory in 2009, when Delhi High Court partially decriminalized Section 377. The decision was however overturned by the Supreme Court in 2013 and review pleas were dismissed. The Supreme Court finally decriminalized homosexuality in 2018 after a long drawn legal battle between gay activist groups, the government and the religious bodies.

Since the Supreme Court decriminalized homosexuality, one of the prime issues of the Gay Pride has been addressed. The battle of acceptance may not have been won, but the legal battle, for sure, has ended.

Hetro Capitalist Pollution

Meanwhile a strange thing happened. The gay rights movement, which was fighting for their rights, got highjacked. As the pride marches started getting media attention, the movement was infiltrated by the Left. The voices of gay rights were heard less and less as the chorus of political voices reached their crescendo. The pride marches became yet another platform for political sloganeering. This is not surprising since the pride marches in the West too have met a similar fate. Pro Hong Kong activists were thrown out of the Montreal Parade, while Pro China group was allowed to march along as they sang the Chinese national anthem.

Since much of the outrage material on ‘social justice’ in India comes from the US, the political sloganeering at pride marches were no exception. Since the last few years, slogans against a particular political party and random Amercian outrage slogans have held sway. Azadi slogans became common and so did the hatred for Modi/BJP/RSS.

But is it wrong to have a political opinion? Why is political sloganeering during Gay Pride wrong? Well, neither is having an opinion wrong, nor is sloganeering. In fact, it is a right. However, such acts of mixing unrelated politics with a focused movement leads to dilution of the movement itself. The pride marches in India are anyway poorly attended. This year’s attendance in Delhi was just about 1,000. In a city with a population of almost 19 million only a paltry 1,000 people attended the march. The pride march does not resonate with a large section of the society, including queer people. If such a poorly attended march then becomes a platform for politics, it will only discourage people from participating.

Another reason why the current political colour of Gay Pride is a deep red, is because it has been appropriated by the far Left. The anti Modi/BJP/RSS slogans, sprinkled with a generous amount of ‘Azadi’ makes one feel as if they are participating in the monthly parade at JNU or Jadhavpur University. The irony is that the far Left, which claims to be the best friend of queer people, is sawing the branch on which it is sitting.

To understand this better, let us go back to the final days of the hearing on Section 377 in the Supreme Court. Other than the government of India, there were sundry religious groups who petitioned the Supreme Court to not decriminalize homosexuality. Muslim organisations like All India Muslim Personal Law Board, Jamat-e-Islami Hind pleaded the government to save Section 377. Christian organisations pleaded in the Supreme Court for nearly two hours on the last day of the hearing in the case, to stop decriminalization of homosexuality.

On the other hand, RSS, the so called mother of BJP and the entire ‘Hindutva’ movement, went for a reset in its outlook. The BJP as the ruling party in the Union government did not oppose the decriminalization of homosexuality. Had the ‘saffron’ party and Modi set up road blocks, the judgement would have been delayed further. The RSS said, that they don’t support homosexuality, but neither do they want it criminalized. Mohan Bhagwat, the chief of RSS said, ‘the LGBTQ community is very much part of the society and they should not be isolated’. The RSS is also of the view that though same sex marriage is something they do not support at the moment, they are however open to a discussion in the future.

For an organization like RSS to openly accept the queer community and staying open to a discussion on something like same sex marriage is a huge climb down. Given the clout of RSS and its influence on the BJP, the queer community should actually make friends with RSS to further their demands. The Muslim and Christian groups are not going to support their cause given the deep theological connection of Islam and Christianity with homophobia.

But instead of leveraging the recent climb down of RSS on gay issues, the far Left infiltrated Gay Pride is raising slogans against the only people/group that supports them. This is primarily because not only has the Gay Pride being appropriated by the far Left, it has also become elitist. Like around the world, the elites do not care much about the real issues, but care more about abstract nonsense like ‘Hetro Capitalist Pollution’.

If there is any real gay movement left, it should exclude the political sloganeering and random captions from their activism and work with people and groups who can give them a real chance to bring a change. The Azadi and hateful political slogans may belong in the campus of JNU and Jadhavpur University, but definitely not in a serious rights movement.

Understanding the BBC footage

BBC has come up with a footage claiming the Indian forces fired tear gas and firearms at a 'rally' in Srinagar. The government is denying it and has asked for evidence from BBC and Al Jazeera.

It is difficult for people to believe the government's version of 'truth', unless they want to blindly support the government. At the same time it is very difficult for people to believe the BBC or Al Jazeera, because both have peddled fake news in the past, on multiple occasions. Al Jazeera is particularly notorious for being under the thumb of the Qatari government and toeing its line on geopolitics. From fake news on Syrian Civil War to conspiracy theory on Jewish advance warning on 9/11, AJ has done it all.

Now coming to the video. Let us assume that the video posted is indeed genuine. Let us assume that there was firing as it can be heard in the video. Let us assume tear gas was fired as claimed in the video and report. The question one should ask oneself is what were the people protesting for? How were the protests carried out? Why was there a need to fire? Was this protest unexpected? Was this protest different from the earlier protests in Kashmir?

What were the people protesting for?

Obviously the people were protesting the abrogation of Article 370. We have seen many videos and reports in multiple news channels, where Kashmiris have shown supporting the move by the government. But like any government decision there would be people who would not support that. It is not really a surprise that Kashmiris have come out in protest over the move. In fact what happened is exactly on predicted lines. There is no element of shock or surprise here.

How were the protests carried out?

We want the terrorists to succeed 

In the video we see a large group of people, all most entirely made up of men, marching down streets. They are carrying flags, banners, sticks and stones. The banners they are carrying call for freedom and reinstating Article 370. Such grievance protests are okay and probably the Kashmiris have a right to carry them out. The flags at the ‘rally’ are what makes this protest anything but peaceful. The flags of Jaish E Mohammad (Lit. Army of Mohammad), flags of Pakistan, flags of Azad Kashmir (Pakistan Occupied Kashmir) can be seen. One should ask oneself, if abrogation of Article 370 was the core issue, why were people waving flags of JeM, an organisation that has carried out multiple terror attacks in Kashmir? Was this a protest against abrogation of Article 370 or a support march for a globally designated terror organisation?

As if flags of a terror outfit was not enough, we also see posters of Islamic State’s ‘Wilayah Hind’(province/region of India). The poster shows Sayar Ahmed, alias Abu Jareer, who was killed by the security forces in June this year. People in the video can be heard shouting the name of Zakir Musa multiple times. Zakir Musa (also killed in 2019) was the chief of Ansar Gazwatul Hind, an Al Qaeda affiliate. The Arabic name, Ansar Gazwatul Hind literally means, ‘supporters of invasion of India’. This refers to the saying of the Prophet (the Hadiths) where he promised paradise to the people who would invade Hind (India).

Towards the very end of the video we see a man standing atop a building, shouting slogans. His first cry is, ‘Hum kya chaahte..?’(what do we want?) and the crowd responds with ‘aazadi’ (freedom). His second cry is, ‘aazadi ka matlab kya?’ (what does freedom means?) and the crowd responds, ‘La Ilaha Il allah’ (there is no other god but Allah). These are two standards slogans/war cries used by Kashmiris during their protests. The call for freedom from India and the religious slogan denying the existence of other gods/faiths over Islam.

The call for an Islamic Kashmir is not new. It has been there since the beginning of militancy in the Valley in the early 90s. Slogans like, ‘Kashmir me rehna hoga, Allahu Akbar kehna hoga’ (If you want to live in Kashmir, you have to say, Allahu Akbar, a call for conversion of Hindus to Islam) were raised. More sinister slogans were used in the 90s to drive away the Hindus from the Valley. These included, Kashir banawon Pakistan, Bataw Varaie, Batneiw Saan’ (Kashmir will become Pakistan, with Pandit women, but without their men), ‘Yaha kya chalega, Nizam-e-Mustafa’ (What will work here, the law of Sharia). The same sentiments prevail today. Just there there are hardly any Hindus left in the Valley to drive out. The narrative has now shifted to Azadi. But the religious elements remain intact.

The liberals who get a chill down their spines at the thought of the imaginary ‘Hindu Rashtra’ are blissfully unaware of demands of a Sharia State in Kashmir. These people watch fictions like Ghoul and Leila and go around discussing how dreadful the current scenario is. At the same time they are either deliberately silent or ignorant of what is happening in Kashmir.

Why was there a need to fire?

As during many protests in Kashmir, the security forces use fire arms as the last resort, when either their own lives are in danger or the crowd is jeopardising an ongoing terrorist encounter. Since the BBC video is an edited version of their raw footage, we have no means to ascertain whether the protestors got violent and the use of fire arms by the forces were a response to the provocation by the protestors. We can either believe the BBC blindly or wait for more information.

Was this protest different from the earlier protests in Kashmir?

Not really. The protests in the video follow the standard template of any other protest in Kashmir. Go to Friday prayers, finish the prayers, come out, shout slogans, wear a mask, raise ISIS flags, pelt the security forces with stones, get injured in retaliatory measures, play victim.

Among other things

Many people are angry that the government is hiding information from the people. It is a genuine ask. We as citizens of the country have the right to know what is happening in our country. The lack of information from the government is forcing people to seek information elsewhere. An information gap is what leads to people believing fake news.

Recently Siddharth Vardharajan of The Wire, filed a report on how security forces have fired pellet guns on people and they have lost their eye sight. No one can say with full authority that the situation in Kashmir valley is ideal. But to go and file a report which is nothing a but a bunch of lies, is a totally different thing. The video shows interviews with people who claim to have been the victims of pellet gun wounds. However none of them have so much as a scar on their faces. Yet they claim that their eyes have been injured. Such malicious reports will make people believe anything as long as there is no credible information from the government.

People are also upset because they think abrogation of Article 370 is against the wish of the people of Kashmir valley. They think that such a move will not integrate Kashmir into India. They think this move will further alienate the Kashmiris. All of the above concerns might be true. But let us not forget that these are concerns only for the people of the Valley. Let us not forget that the abrogation of Article 370 also impacted the regions of Jammu and Ladakh. People in these regions are overwhelmingly happy with the step. Ladakh has been demanding a Union Territory status for a very long time. What about the aspirations and demands of people outside the Valley?

People are also saying that since the Valley clearly is against the abrogation of Article 370, it should not have been done. The move would only lead to further violence and an increase in militancy. This is a stupid argument. Since when did fear of violence has stopped governments from taking steps in larger public interest? The recent episode of entry of women of menstruating age in Sabarimala temple is a case in point. There were large scale protests by women across the state of Kerala against the Supreme Court ruling. An overwhelming majority of women in Kerala and many southern states were against letting women of menstrual age into the temple. Yet, the State government tried to implement the order of the Supreme Court. The people who are now angry as to why the voices of people are not heard, were angry then because people were voicing their concerns against a Court order.

We are entitled to information on the situation in Kashmir. The government is not doing a great job by allegedly denying or supressing the information of unrest in Kashmir. We have all the rights to know what is happening. But at the same time, we should take a moment and ask ourselves, ‘are we really upset about the absence of the news or are we inadvertently supporting a rabid religious movement which was responsible for genocide? Do we support the terror organisations and their sympathisers? The choice is ours.