Row after India's health minister calls homosexuality a disease
India's health minister has sparked a furious row over comments in which he described homosexuality as a "disease".
Ghulam Nabi Azad told a conference on HIV/Aids that gay sex was "unnatural".
One leading Aids campaigner said the minister was "living on another planet". The UN has also condemned his comments.
Gay sex was decriminalised in the country in a landmark judgement in 2009 but anti-homosexual discrimination remains widespread.
Mr Azad told the meeting in Delhi on Monday that homosexuality "is a disease which has come from other countries.
"Even though it is unnatural, it exists in our country and is now fast-spreading, making it tough to detect," he said.
He said men having sex with other men "should not happen, but does".
He also said that "though it is easy to find women sex workers and educate them on sex, it is a challenge to identify men having sex with men".
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress Party leader Sonia Gandhi were also present at the conference, along with a raft of government ministers, but had reportedly left before Mr Azad made his comments.
'Unacceptable'
Anand Grover, United Nations special rapporteur on health, criticised Mr Azad's comments.
"It's unfortunate, regrettable and totally unacceptable that a minister of his stature... is still insensitive to a vulnerable groups such as MSM [men who have sex with men]," the Hindustan Times newspaper quoted him as saying.
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read more at the BBC
Ghulam Nabi Azad told a conference on HIV/Aids that gay sex was "unnatural".
One leading Aids campaigner said the minister was "living on another planet". The UN has also condemned his comments.
Gay sex was decriminalised in the country in a landmark judgement in 2009 but anti-homosexual discrimination remains widespread.
Mr Azad told the meeting in Delhi on Monday that homosexuality "is a disease which has come from other countries.
"Even though it is unnatural, it exists in our country and is now fast-spreading, making it tough to detect," he said.
He said men having sex with other men "should not happen, but does".
He also said that "though it is easy to find women sex workers and educate them on sex, it is a challenge to identify men having sex with men".
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress Party leader Sonia Gandhi were also present at the conference, along with a raft of government ministers, but had reportedly left before Mr Azad made his comments.
'Unacceptable'
Anand Grover, United Nations special rapporteur on health, criticised Mr Azad's comments.
"It's unfortunate, regrettable and totally unacceptable that a minister of his stature... is still insensitive to a vulnerable groups such as MSM [men who have sex with men]," the Hindustan Times newspaper quoted him as saying.
______________________
read more at the BBC