Vote!

Elections '09 seems to have opened the flood gates of Independent candidates, especially in Mumbai. Independents have been a regular feature come election time - rebels who stand as independents when their political party denies them a ticket and if elected drive a hard bargain to prop up a coalition government. This time a new breed of candidates, untarred by the political brush, have decided to throw their hat in the ring in urban centres, and are receiving adulation and press coverage.

There is a banker from Mumbai-Meera Sanyal, dancer Mallika Sarabai from Ahmedabad, low cost airline pioneer Captain Gopinath from Bangalore, among others. They are educated, have successful careers, but their biggest asset if blog land is to be believed is that they are not politicians.

Would I vote for them? Hmmmm.... My uneasiness with the candidates comes from the fact that what do I know of them besides the fact that they are people like you and me. With a politician, a voter knows where he stands. A politician makes a career of soliciting my vote with promises of development and a better future. Even if he doesn't fulfill any of those promises, I know that the politician will still come back to me after five years.

I cannot say that for sure with some one who Shobhaa De calls the ``prim and propah Malabar Hill memsaab''. A career politician can be held accountable at least once in five years - or five years after that. But, not so some one who has decided to ''do something for the country'' just before the elections.

This is not to say only politicians deserve to be voted to power. Gimme an independent candidate with some record of public work or civic activism, who knows his career depends on the the common wo/man. Gimme some one like Adolf D'souza, who was elected a corporator from Juhu - he was a person like you and me, but more importantly he was a grass roots activist and had a background in championing public causes as an activist with the Juhu Citizen's Welfare Group.

So, Meera Sanyal, I promise you my vote (though technically that's an impossibility as I don't stay in South Mumbai) if you still stick around for the next Lok Sabha polls. Till then I am pitching for a politician who does not have a criminal past and does not preach hate towards someone who calls God by another name, speaks a different language or was born in another state.

[Post script: The influx of independent candidates, who are trying to reach out to different constituencies of voters and create new vote banks, did however have an interesting fall out. Ms Sanyal had communicated the desire to meet the gay community to cultivate their votes and take up their issues. The proposal apparently petered out, but a beginning was made!]

[Post-post script: Ms Sanyal did have a campaign meeting with the LGBT community and issued a supportive statement. She lost the elections, though.]

Get a Dost!

``Bolder than ever'' promises the tag line of the new issue of Bombay Dost - that iconic magazine most gay men in India have heard about, but rarely seen. Not surprising since the last issue came out around seven years ago.

So, April 16 was special. A new and young team brought out the latest issue. ``This is a magazine that brought a community together,'' said Vivek Anand, CEO of the Humsafar Trust at the launch of the magazine on Thursday evening at the Oxford Book Store at Churchgate. He was not exaggerating. It was a group of friends, including Ashok Row Kavi, who founded the magazine in 1990. That tiny step, was a huge leap for gay activism as we know today.

For many gay men coming of age in the 1990s, Bombay Dost was that one ray of hope out of their closets. ``I bought my first copy from the pavements outside the CST station for Rs 200,'' said Manavendra Singh Gohil, the Prince of Rajpipla. ``I hid it in my shirt as I did not want my driver to see it. I read it cover to cover in a washroom. It was a liberating moment.''

Many gay men of the pre-Internet, pre-g4m days have similar stories to narrate - of forking out a princely sum for a copy, holding on to a dog eared copy lent by a friend while trying to memorise his instructions on handling the magazine with care.

The magazine travelled from one friend to another, some times even across borders. ``We used to receive letters from gay men in Pakistan, Afghanistan and even Tajikistan, who had managed to land their hands on a copy,'' said Kavi.

Since then it has travelled far - from underground to the shelves of prominent book stores. The magazine was launched by Bollywood actor Celina Jaitley. who has been quite ardent in her support of LGBT causes since she inaugurated the Queer Aazadi March last year. ``Thanks to my gay friends I have been a witness to the agonies and ecstasies in their lives,'' said Celina, adding, ``It is difficult to be a normal human being and still because of your sexual orientation find your family, community and society treating you as an outcast.''

(Pic courtesy: Vivek - (L to R) BD editor Vikram Phukan, Ashok Row Kavi, Celina Jaitley and Manvendra Singh Gohil at the launch of the magazine on April 16, 2009.)

Bombay Dost: Rs 150
It is available at Oxford Book Store, Churchgate and other book shops in the city.
For a peek, check this link:
http://www.bombaydost.co.in/current.html