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Queer Menaka Guruswamy’s RS candidature sparks row; Muslim cleric says ‘against Islam’, BJP says TMC ‘hurt core vote bank’

Statesman News Service

Image courtesy: X/@MenakaGuruswamy


While West Bengal’s ruling party, Trinamool Congress (TMC), created history by announcing the candidature of senior advocate and openly queer Menaka Guruswamy for the Rajya Sabha elections to be held on March 16, it also stoked a row. Guruswamy—the math is in her favour in the Upper House—could become India’s first openly LGBTQ+ Member of Parliament.

But, the move seems to have created a political conundrum.

All India Muslim Jamat’s chief Maulana Shahabuddin Rizvi Barelvi publicly expressed misgivings about Guruswamy belonging to the LGBT+ community that promotes “same-sex relations”, which was “impermissible” in Islam.

“She is now going to become a Rajya Sabha member from TMC. The key point is that she promotes homosexuality, and by ‘homosexuality’ we mean same-sex relations. She herself identifies as homosexual, and reportedly, she also has a female partner. From the perspective of Islam, this is considered impermissible, and promoting it is strictly wrong,” said Barelvi.

The BJP, in the meanwhile, is having a field day.

Taking potshots at the snowballing controversy, BJP leader Amit Malviya took to X/Twitter, and said, “The woke gang within the Trinamool has reduced Meneka Guruswamy’s nomination to the Rajya Sabha to her sexuality, while the mullahs, who fuel Mamata Banerjee’s election campaigns with their support, including fake and illegal voters, are fuming, calling it an affront to their faith. Politics built on selective signalling and shifting narratives eventually runs into its own limits. Attempting to balance incompatible expectations is not strategy, it’s instability. Sailing in two boats is always a risky proposition.”

Earlier in the day, Malviya had called into question Guruswamy’s defence of former West Bengal police chief Vineet Goyal in the gruesome RG Kar Medical College rape and murder, which sparked massive public outrage and widespread protests in the state.

In a long post on X/Twitter, Malviya said: “Serious questions were raised about how the investigation was handled. The disclosure of the victim’s identity triggered outrage. Protesting junior doctors and large sections of the medical fraternity demanded accountability and transparency. Trust in the system was deeply shaken. At such a moment, this nomination sends a message and not a reassuring one.”

“People across Bengal must pause and reflect on the unimaginable loss suffered by the victim’s middle-class parents, who spent their life’s savings educating their only child, only to see her life cut short in the most brutal way. For the protesting doctors and the wider medical community seeking justice for their colleague, this decision will be seen not as closure but as a provocation. In public life, perception matters. And this perception is unlikely to fade anytime soon,” Malviya added.

Meanwhile, West Bengal minister Chandrima Bhattacharya said the Trinamool Congress, under the leadership of CM Banerjee, is determined to giving women their rightful place in society.

“We do not merely speak about giving women their rightful place in society; we demonstrate it through our actions. The key driving force behind this work is Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Supporting her leadership and representing the youth is Abhishek Banerjee, our respected Member of Parliament,” the minister said.

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