NCP (SP) has nominated Anish Gawande, a 27-year-old LGBTQ+ activist, as its national spokesperson. Gawande, who had previously kept his sexuality private for professional reasons, founded Pink List India to track LGBTQ+-friendly politicians. His appointment is viewed as a turning point for LGBTQ+ representation in Indian politics. He advocates horizontal reservations and comprehensive anti-discrimination laws.
Gawande aspired to live up to his grandfather’s legacy, whom he had never met. T. K. Tope helped B. R. Ambedkar in drafting both the Constitution and the Hindu Code Bill before becoming the longest-serving principal of Churchgate’s Government Law College, the vice chancellor of Mumbai University, and the city’s sheriff.
An arts and commerce night college in Parel that educated the children of mill workers in the 1980s is named for the educationist who authored 20 books. In a desire to emulate his ajoba, who died before he was born, Gawande studied comparative literature at Columbia University before majoring in intellectual history and public policy at the University of Oxford. “For the longest time, I was unsure whether politics would be the right vehicle to give back the way he did to Mumbai, Maharashtra, and India… but I guess the decision’s been made now!” says the 27-year-old, who now resides in Delhi, referring to his recent advancement.
In a move heralded by the LGBTQ+ community as a first in Indian politics, Gawande-an LGBTQ+ rights activist who identifies as a gay man-has been recently appointed national spokesperson of NCP (SP). “I never thought it would be possible to be out and in politics,” says the Gen Zer who founded Pink List India-a database of politicians supportive of LGBTQ+ rights-and carried out Covid-19 relief work with a non-profit called Youth Feed India. These initiatives, he believes, may have culminated in the letter from NCP (SP) that informed him on August 5 of his appointment as national spokesperson-a role that entails not only representing the party at the national level, in print, electronic, and television media but also sharing the top leadership’s views on matters like manifestos and election strategies. “I hope that this move allows other young queer kids who feel like they need to be in the closet the chance to come out and dream big,” says Gawande.
An alumnus of Greenlawns School in Worli and Cathedral & John Connon School at Fort, Gawande-who read voraciously under his bedsheets with a torch-spent a lot of childhood onstage, participating in debates, elocution, and theatre. “I was fairly certain I was gay early on, but I was also fairly certain that I wanted a career in public service-so I voluntarily stayed in the closet,” says Gawande, who recalls going to his college counsellor at Columbia University and asking her “for help to stay in the closet!” “She smiled then and agreed to work with me, but of course, we both knew I needed to come out eventually-and I did, over the course of a remarkable summer internship at the Indian Embassy in Paris, but that’s a story for another interview,” says Gawande, adding that his “family-and there’s a lot of them-was incredibly supportive from the get-go”.
After coming out of the closet, Gawande studied Francophone West Africa, immersed himself in Senegalese linguistic politics, and was all set to become a professor when he got an opportunity to run an election campaign in India in 2018. “I made the difficult choice then of coming back home-but it’s one I have never regretted,” says Gawande, who was surprised to see a number of politicians being vocal about queer issues during the last election campaign. Eager to document their willingness, he created Pink List India with a friend and found that 116 MPs of the former Lok Sabha had made positive statements about the LGBTQ+ community.
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Source: TOI
