In August this year, 28-year-old Anish Gawande was appointed as national spokesperson of the NCP(SP). This made him the first openly gay person to be appointed to this post in a mainstream political party in India.
With a Bachelor’s degree in comparative literature and society from Columbia University and two Master’s degrees from Oxford University, his academic credentials are impeccable and more than what most aspiring politicians tend to acquire.
“I started my journey thinking I would do economics and political science, but I realised I was far more interested in literature and literary theory. It is not just an academic field but a lens through which one can view the world,” says Gawande. As he enjoyed learning from Professor Mamadou Diouf at Columbia, Gawande successfully challenged himself to do a thesis on Senegalese linguistic politics.
After coming back to India and working on a “disastrous” political campaign with the Maharashtra Congress for the 2019 elections, Gawande applied for the Rhodes scholarship on a whim. He ultimately won it and ended up studying intellectual history and public policy at Oxford.
With some friends, he founded Pink List India, an archive of politicians supporting LGBTQ+ rights, as they felt there was a gap around the political landscape of the community. “It was created out of a desire to know how we could get politicians to support queer rights. Little did I know that I would become a politician in due course.” How can a politician get featured on the Pink List? Make a public statement in support of queer rights and it will be covered, says Gawande.
Gawande was in the closet throughout his schooling in Mumbai, and he even took the help of the college councillor at Columbia to keep it that way. He travelled to Paris for an internship and came out there, knowing that nobody knew him. Then, while working for the Congress in Maharashtra, he gradually came out to colleagues and people around him.
Gawande said he joined NCP (SP) in August this year as he was drawn to it because of its progressive policies and thought process. He also said that if the MVA government comes to power in November, it won’t enact specific policies for welfare of the LGBTQ+ community. “I don’t think you need separate rights. I think you need to create a space where government services are going to be inclusive of queer people, of differently abled people, of caste minorities, and of religious minorities.” He promises that in an MVA government, a more diverse set of people will be at the decision-making table. “Seeing policy issues as separate is exactly what has prevented a minority rights movement from being a part of the mainstream,” he adds.
Gawande has also spoken out against Israel’s attacks in Lebanon and called for a ceasefire in Gaza. To people who declare that Israel must be supported as it is the only queer-friendly nation in the Middle East he responds, “Audrey Lorde once famously said, “There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.” Similarly just because a country is queer friendly does not mean that it should be supported when it’s doing something wrong.” He says that at its worst the situation in Gaza is a case of Pink-washing: a government is trying to smooth over its track record on human rights in one aspect, bombing civilians in its attempt to curb terror, by portraying itself as a nation that supports another kind of human rights i.e. queer rights. “We can’t pit human rights against each other; they are inalienable and part of one single package,” he remarks.
About NCP(SP)’s view on criminal defamation, Gawande said that the party believes the law needs to be re-examined. Personally he is in favour of a complete striking down of the law and restricting defamation to civil suits. When questioned why the party filed criminal defamation cases against people like Ketaki Chitale for her remarks on Sharad Pawar he said, “My firm belief is that this is not a partisan political conversation. But the unfortunate reality is that if a law becomes a political tool it will be used by all political parties. The only logical way of ending the cycle of tu tu-mai mai is by relooking the law entirely across the political spectrum without prejudice.” Criminal defamation cases can be filed by individuals and a political party will find it very difficult to tell its karyakartas that defending their leader is wrong,” he remarks.
Speaking about public transport, Gawande opined that free travel for women and subsidised rates in general are a critical necessity. “Metros are flashy big-ticket infrastructure projects that look good for the government in power, and you can give out the contracts for thousands of crores of rupees. Buses on the other hand require much less effort, are not as sexy, and don’t get you the PR stunt that you need. But the reality is that buses work better than metros,” he admits.
Gawande is aware that only a minority of queer people in the country can come out to their parents or friends, that there’s a very direct understanding that the government can only do so much, and that societal change needs to come from within society. “But I think governments have to lead from the front. If we acknowledge that we are fighting an ideological fight with the BJP, a new political imagination has to be presented to people to ensure they realise that other worlds are possible. Being regressive and discriminatory is not the only option. I think politics doesn’t find the solution, politics allows you to believe that a solution is possible,” he says.