Major political parties have been releasing their manifesto for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections as late in the game as a fortnight before elections, and sometimes even after a phase of voting has concluded. Election manifestos may not be taken very seriously by some voters and even by some politicians themselves. Unsurprising, considering election manifestos are not legally binding in India, and thus, neither political parties nor their candidates can be legally held accountable. Nevertheless, they are a strategic set of promises by parties to the electorate.
Irrespective of intentionality, manifestos in the past couple elections have had some mentions of queer rights. However, with the passage of the Transgender Persons Act in 2019 (hereafter, TP Act 2019) and the recent judgement in the Marriage Equality case in October 2023, the ball is now in Parliament’s court to recognize a whole host of rights and protections due for LGBTQIA+ persons in India. It has become a legislative matter, putting onus on parties and their MPs, whom we must engage with now.
In the 2024 elections, marriage equality is yet to grace any party’s manifesto; however, the phrases ‘civil union’ and ‘same-sex partnership’ have stood in for it in some manner. Garima Grehs (shelter houses), amendment of the TP Act, and gender-affirming healthcare are among the handful of promises in party manifestos.
Personally, the inclusion of at least some advances toward LGBTQIA+ rights in party manifestos was a welcome surprise. However, reactions on social media and in many opinion pieces were wrought with cynicism – people questioning parties for not speaking up earlier, or declaring the promises as election gimmicks. The scepticism has been rather disheartening. Meanwhile, atrocities against queer persons, especially trans persons, have become frequent occurrences – bullying in schools, forced marriages, and confinement, to name a few. Rights and protections enshrined in law will go a long way in helping us secure the safety and dignity of queer persons.
Rome was not built in a day, and neither will we build the Queerdom. Keeping some of that cynicism aside, it’s time we pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and rise to build the foundations of our Roman empire. To give us a head start, here’s a list of promises from some prominent parties’ manifestos.
BJP’s manifesto mentions the expansion of the Garima Greh network to ‘cater to the needs of transgender individuals’. Identity cards have also been promised to transgender individuals for ‘their nationwide recognition’, but hints at gatekeeping access to Ayushman Bharatha, a national public health insurance scheme, for ‘all eligible transgender individuals’. No promises toward other LGBQIA+ persons, and keeping in line with the updated rules of Transgender Persons Act, 2019, right to self-identification will be in jeopardy.
Congress (INC) has promised expansion of Articles 15 and 16 of the Constitution, which prohibit discrimination on various grounds, to include the words ‘disability’, ‘impairment’, or ‘sexual orientation’. Promises have also been made to ‘bring a law to recognise civil unions between couples belonging to the LGBTQIA+ community’ following ‘wide consultations’. Notably, it is the only manifesto among those including LGBTQIA+ rights, to not have anything specifically focused on trans persons’ rights.
CPI(M) has widened the ambit of promises notably to include anti-discriminatory laws, amendment to the TP Act 2019, ‘legal recognition and protection to same sex couples similar to marriage’, reservation in education, measures to address ‘bullying, violence, and harassment’ in educational institutions, and treatment of crimes against LGBTQ+ persons on par with those against ‘non-LGBTQ+’ persons.
Latest in line is NCP-SP, promising legal recognition, including marriage and adoption rights. Inclusive education with training for educators, gender-affirming care, hate crime legislation, policies preventing workplace discrimination, harassment, and bullying, opening of youth centres and counselling and support groups, and public awareness campaigns are other notable promises.
Now, armed with this information, vote wisely, and hold parties accountable to their promises.
Many queer people are wary of participating in political campaigns fearing their safety, and rightly so. Strength, however, lies in numbers and diversifying tactics. Here are few ways we can demand accountability while minimising individual exposure:
Understand major and regional political parties’ promises for LGBTQIA+ rights. You can find other parties’ manifesto by googling them.
Educate, educate, educate! Find out the stances of various MPs – both for and against LGBTQIA+ rights. Pink List India has a formidable archive of statements made by various politicians in public or in Parliament with media clippings. If your local MP is amenable, be our ground deploy and engage in-person, if you can.
Pick battles with the best odds. It’s easiest to bring around the most amenable. So, engage with politicians and parties most likely to support our cause. With timelines for legislating on LGBTQIA+ issues unspecified, Parliament is under little pressure to act. However, harnessing social media as a powerful advocacy tool, campaigns targetting social media handles of these MPs would help. Target these MPs and their political allies, be like the Duolingo owl!
Land in their inbox. Contact details of MPs are public information. Participate in mass campaigns mailing/posting our demands to MPs and party offices.
Contribute information. Maintaining repositories like Pink List India and coverage of elections from a queer feminist lens such as by Gaysi Family and Behan Box is hard work. Send them statements you come across made by your local politician on LGBTQIA+ rights, so they can be documented. Volunteer your time with repositories. Expand the reach of resources/ information shared by platforms by helping translate them into regional languages.
Create engagement. Invite MPs to LGBTQIA+ events. Organise town-hall or sabha-like setups where they get to interact with LGBTQIA+ persons. Ask them for responses and statements to our challenges. They can resist and claim ‘packed schedules’ at the start, but eventually, we are citizens – their electorate, and they must make time for us.
Remind them of their promises. Refer to promises in their manifestos in all correspondence – letters, social media, meetings. Let them not forget and know that we have not forgotten. Borrowing from the adage “tell a lie often enough…”, let us instead, repeat a promise often enough till it is brought to reality.
As activist and artist Zanele Muholi says, “If I wait for someone else to validate my existence, it will mean that I’m shortchanging myself.” Resilience is no guest to us, and as a community advocating for its rights we have come this far; we must strategise to use this momentum to move forward. Let us persevere towards improving political will.
Happy and wise voting, and let the good fight continue.
