16 July, 2007

“The western culture of sexual relation”

Somebody please tell me what this quote means:

I think the government wants to import the western culture of sexual relation between student relation to India.

That’s Murli Manohar Joshi, speaking out against sex education in Indian schools in a report by Chetan Chauhan of the Hindustan Times. More from the report:

He [Joshi] said introduction of sex education was what multinationals did to create the desire for sex among teenagers to sell their products. “It is not sex education. It is education to sell condoms,” he alleged.

In a similar vein, Joshi is quoted as saying in another report:

The whole concept of such a syllabus is aimed at creating market for global brands of MNCs and would result in global domination.

At least there is one thing that unites the loonies on the Left and Right of our political spectrum—an irrational and self-serving hatred of MNCs. There’s really not that much difference between Prakash Karat and Murli Manohar Joshi. (I know both of them would feel insulted by this comparison, which adds to my pleasure at making it.)

(Link via elbow-nudge from Rahul.)