Sex Tapes and Abhishek Manu Singhvi

Indians love to act as if they hate sex. Alleged sexapades of public figures are always in the news every now and then. Indians love to talk/write about them (mostly in disgust) - be it Swami Nityananda, Narayan Dutt Tiwari and now Abhishek Manu Singhvi.

The main assumption here is that - 'If you are a public figure you should be asexual'. This has something to do with our religious teaching that unless you conquer your kaam, krodh, moha, mada and matsar you are not good enough to do good to others.

Now let us look at some of these recent cases in consideration.

Swami Nityananda- A healthy looking youth with a supple body. Do you expect him to keep meditating 24 hours while men of his age are supposed to spend eighty per cent of their waking time thinking about sex. I have no idea if he ever claimed to be a celibate man, perhaps he did, as most Indian Guru's do. The mistake lies there. It is impossible for many Indian's to imagine that their spiritual guru has sex. 

I am not big fan of these Guru's nor am I totally against them, as long as you are not outright cheating people by claiming to be what you are not. It is interesting to note that the Indian Gods have full permission to marry (in most cases more than once), and also have sexual affairs outside wedlock, but not Spiritual Gurus. They have to be hundred percent Brahmacharis. The Puranic people were much more liberal as they allowed many gurus to 'fall' from their high pedestal by getting intimate with celestial damsels or even simple fisherwomen.  It is time that there are some spiritual gurus who publicly claim that he/she has sexual urges and he/she satisfies them. That will be a good beginning to clean this sex mess in the Gurudom.

N. D. Tiwari- It was a clear case of an old man, who has lived a life of flamboyance and hires sex workers when perhaps no woman agrees to sleep with him. There are hundreds of  such old men who do it. But the problem for the public was- 'At this age? This is perversion' Arre bhai kyon? Let him satisfy his sexual desires. Please accept that old people are also sexual beings. The other issue was- 'How can he do it in Raj Bhavan'- It is official residence of the governor. He was the governor and it was his residence. A person can have sex at his residence. What is the issue? 

Abhishek Manu Singhvi- Honestly, I have never been a great fan of this guy either. I tend to ignore the existence of  these 'college debate' type of individuals. Keeping that aside, the CD making rounds of the internet shows (allegedly) him having sexual intercourse with a lady lawyer. He is like just another middle aged guy, who is having an extra-marital sexual affair with a colleague and the act happens in his office. The problem here was that his former driver got it recorded and managed to make it public, perhaps after he failed to get any money from Singhvi. The matter is said to have been settled between the two parties. It appears driver made a good amount money. The case here is that of clear blackmailing. Singhvi resigned from the offices that he has been holding because he was the unfortunate one to get caught in an act, which most Indians love to hate. I am sure a score of his colleagues and also many who have been eloquently talking against it do it day in and day out.  

Using sex, to destroy credibility of a person is a very old trick and we have been falling for it from time immemorial. It is not true only of Indians but almost all countries and civiliasations of the world. The only sane thing, that I have been noticing since these three cases are being debated in the public sphere is that, there are a growing number of individuals who would not like to give it much importance. To me that is a welcome change. I am hoping that we would go through this 'desensitisation' process and some day the effort to record and then make such videos public would sound like a futile effort. Perhaps there would be many more such much loved 'scandals' before we reach that stage.