LGBTQIA+ is a sensitive topic important enough for the Supreme Court to consider admitting them into the mainstream, objected to by the central government and hotly disputed by the other side. Many nations have enacted laws permitting same sex marriages, and in a diverse nation like India, where we have the Kama Sutra and boldest views on sex as depicted in stone in Khajuraho and our ancient caves and literature, religion and society having evolved with all sorts of repression and customs, castes and some almost Taliban like views as regards women. Bringing in a law replacing man and woman with person, husband and wife with spouse in the Special Marriages Act will violently clash with religion and personal laws! There is no doubt that this matter has to be discussed widely in Society and Parliament with an open mind and scientific temper which the BJP/RSS in power will hesitate to sponsor!
This reminds me the popular old song Love and Marriage go together like a horse and carriage and of Tina Turner hit song ‘What’s love got to do with it’. Personally I think love is a charming illusion and I agree with the preacher who said love is a decision!
Marriage is an important institution in society, the fulcrum of uniting two people satisfying the civilized laws of procreation, family life within law and order which regulates civic society. Sex is a powerful force and man has to control his basic animal instinct. A boy sees a beautiful girl (beauty is in the eyes of the beholder), his natural urge is like the dog story above, but he likewise cannot satisfy his urge! From time immemorial, man has had to try out various solutions to productively manage and control this force in civilized society where might is right is uncivilized. As we have experienced, damming up the sexual forces leads to violent rapes and sexual crimes despite stringent laws and policing! There are plenty of resultant ills to handle like human trafficking, abortion in forced/unwanted pregnancy, the seven year itch even in sound marriages! There are also crimes/suicides due to rejection and misuse of laws as couple voluntarily living together fall out and girl cries rape and police arrest the boy. Marital rape is also a big problem as yet unrecognized in India! Another problem is the priest and pornographer, one bans sex before marriage and the other fuels it! Prostitution is the oldest profession in the world where there is a whole lot of hypocrisy.
It is reported that big money is being put to sponsor the LGBT movement! Weird theories abound. The government will have to deal with more such serious and sensitive questions in law and society, as the progress in building robots, androids and Cyborgs are moving at comparatively warp speed! Robots, bots we know about and also androids looking and acting like humans? Androids with artificial intelligence make them far superior in knowledge and have been travelling the world with the help of humans. Many must have heard and seen the first Android Sophia. She was granted citizenship of Saudi Arabia in 2016. She reportedly visited Calcutta in 2017. Subsequently greatly improved, she reportedly successfully conducted an art auction and is now looking for a career in music! Asked about sex and gender she replied she is a machine and has no gender. She wondered what it would be like to eat and taste something! However now we are creating Cyborgs which are implant combinations of human and robot capable of feelings, emotions and even self or sexual reproduction! In fact we are already moving into dangerous territory with Xenobots. They are robots made out of skin cells (stem cells) of frog and they can reproduce themselves!
Right now I understand Chat GPT4 is the most advanced AI. There are lots of wonderful plus points and also dangerous consequences resulting from biotechnology! What about natural sex and marriage and bringing up children? That is why the Supreme Court and Parliament legislating on the LGBT issue assumes great importance. The world exhibiting pandemic of political hypocrisy appears to be destroying democracy with developed electoral autocracies competitively rushing into completely unpredictable territory. Whilst robotics may help economic growth and productivity, multiply mankind’s ability in science and technology, people fear loss of jobs, social manipulation and surveillance, biases due AI, widening socio economic inequality, deep fakes and weaponizing robots. Savvy individuals like Elon Musk have cautioned of potential of self-learning reproductive robots for destruction of civilization!
(The author is a retired naval officer, freelance writer, resident
of Porvorim)
