A politician's coming out story

I was scared that I would never be able to be in politics as an outg man you can't ask me such question when I'm from a Maharashtra based party always Mumbai J Maharashtra welcome to the party office welcome to the ncpv funny being a gay politician in this country because there's not too many of us hi brute India this is Anish kavandi and I'm the national spokesperson for the ncpsp at what age did you find out about your sexuality so you know I was born and brought up in Mumbai and grew up there went to school in Mumbai and was in the closet throughout my time in school and went off to college to Columbia University in New York when I was 18 years old at University I was terrified that if I came out of the closet and went onto a dating app my photo would be on the front page of the times of India takes a bit of a megalomaniac to be in politics uh and so I stayed in the closet there as well and I went to I remember I went to my college counselor and said uh I need your help staying in the closet and she's my therapist even today and when and back then she said of course we'll work on it and of course as the these things go I didn't really stay in the closet I got an internship through a grant to work in Paris where I knew nobody and nobody knew me and that's where I came out and there was no going back that resulted in a pretty significant shift in Gears I was studying uh comparative literature uh because I thought that I would never come back to India because I was out now and couldn't work in politics anymore and thought I would become a professor in the US little did I know that a few weeks before I graduated I would get a phone call from mandera who used to be the South by MP at the time uh to come and run his political campaign and I said I'm very out in in New York City and his only response was so and with that I came back to India I worked on the 2019 Loa election campaigns for a year with Mumbai Congress and the Maharashtra Congress and really sort of came out to colleagues to people around me and then finally when pink list India started to the country at large through a Times of India article so you know some of those fears did come true but this time I got to choose what photo I put on there and I got to decide the narrative so public league you came out in 2019 and that is when you started pink list India so that was the pink list India interview uh was the one in the times of India that had the headline you're always told you can't be queer in Indian politics that needs to change 5 years later he is a queer person in Indian politics tell us about pink list India you know pink list India was uh created in 2019 by me and two others SMY DEA and de bakshi to catalog which candidate standing for elections had supported lgbtq plus rights because until then we knew who were the homophobic politicians but we didn't know who supported queerness right and who supported queer rights so in 2019 we started documenting every single Lok SAA MP and every single statement they'd made on lgbtq plus issues the 17th Lo SAA had 161 MPS who had spoken up on lgbtq plus issues out of which 116 had supported lgbtq plus rights the most recently elected Lok saaba which has a renewed and reinvigorated opposition bench has around 110 MPS who have supported lgbtq plus rights or spoken on lgbtq plus rights in some way shape or form but I think what we're witnessing is a transformation in the ability and the willingness of politicians to engage with queerness and that's a change that I'm proud to have seen in The Last 5 Years and that's a change that we need to build upon in the years to come I think what we're seeing today is a reinvention and sort of reinstating of progressive politics we have now realized that a politics of hate a politics of divisiveness a rhetoric of sort of Hindu Muslim a rhetoric of cast versus cast is not going to help anybody that's a rhetoric that has been rejected by the people of this country it's a rhetoric that has been sort of rejected by the opposition So today we're witnessing a revived Progressive politics across the country that's Progressive on issues of religion cast gender and sexuality so all in all we're seeing a new political imagination that ensures that young people regardless of their identity regardless of the backgrounds they come from have an equal short at success and have an equal shot of being who they are and I really hope that we continue this momentum has it become easier for younger career people to come out a fair bit is it easy for young Creer people to come out not really we have to pave that path we have to keep working harder and we have to ensure that every young person in this country has a sh of success has a shoted success regardless of where they come from or regardless of what their sexual orientation or gender identity is what is sexuality for you sexuality is an expression of yourself right it's about loving who you want to love it's about being who you are it's not something that should Define you and it's certainly not something that should Define how others see you so it's something deeply personal yet deeply political because who we are what we eat what we wear is political and what we do with that identity and how we ensure that that identity becomes the pivot through which we advocate for the inclusion and equality and well-being of everybody else is a political act and that's where sexuality becomes something that is truly personal but also deeply political has your sexuality ever been a point of contention when you were giving the designation of a spokes person po you know the funny part is I don't think the party has ever asked me anything about my sexuality when I was given the sort of role as National spokesperson for the Party by Supra Tha and Mr pavar the Mandate was clear to sort of represent to the party to the best of your abilities and expand the party's ideological reach but it's funny being a gay politician in this country because there's not too many of us how you would want your position to advocate for quer people not just in Maharashtra but throughout India too when I was coming out of the closet I sort of stayed in the closet for many many more years than I should have because I was scared that I would never be able to be in politics as an outg man why I think because the reality is that Indian politics is not a very Progressive space it's not a very accepting space and you have to fight to make space for yourself and I think today if there's anything that I'm proud of it is that I fought to make that space for myself and I hope that it serves as an inspiration to others there have been people who walked this path before me disha pinky shik who's a spokesperson for the vanet ban aari has done phenomenal work shabnam MOSI who's a transwoman who was elected from madhya Pradesh uh a while ago has sort of uh paved the path for others as well but I think today as an out gay man in Indian politics I want this to serve as a case study for young queer people like me who thought that it's impossible to be out and in politics and to say that hey you can do it too in the last Manifesto the CPI the Congress NCP Trin and bgp they had rights you know for transgenders politically do you think that this is a significant moment that was in 2024 manifestos you know the 2024 Manifesto moment is a significant one you've seen uh several political parties mention lgbtq plus rights in their Manifesto my party the ncpsp has had an lgbtq plus cell for several years now and we've had the most comprehensive set of promises and lgbtq plus rights in our Manifesto what this needs to translate now is into action my party like others need to implement the promises that they've made in their National manifestos at the state level wherever they're in power and I really hope that we do so in the months and years to come but what we've really seen is a shifting off the needle 5 years ago couple of parties had the guts to put lgbtq plus rights in their Manifesto 5 years down several more 5 years later mark my words no party will be able to ignore lgbtq plus rights and that's the move that we made politically and that's what we need to keep striving for and fighting for why should the youth especially those who are going to vote for the first time vote for NCP or it's aign because we're a party that promises things that young people care about we're a party that's talking about climate change we're a party that's talking about Progressive causes we're a party that's talking about unemployment and actually having a solution to the problem so I think the mavas aadii which is fighting together in this election has a group of leaders who know what young people want and and it's made up of young people please tell me don't you want to vote for a party that gives chances to people who are as young as I am and gives them the chance to be National spokesperson what change do you want in Maharashtra I want the government to change so that's the change I want to see in Maharashtra today and we have to restore a political sort of discourse that doesn't focus on big promises and headline grabbing we want a government that works for people that takes action