The unnatural death of a homosexual professor

Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras is dead. And the Aligarh Muslim University plans to hold a condolence meeting in his memory on the campus on Thursday.
How many among those who attend the meet and shed tears over the departed soul would have been part of the witch-hunt that may or may not have claimed his life on Tuesday?
The Marathi reader and former chair of Modern Indian Languages at Aligarh Muslim University was suspended for engaging in homosexual activities at his official residence on the campus with an unidentified rickshaw puller in February this year. The university authorities and some of his students were said to have colluded with a local news channel to film the incident and bring him to book.
Some reports say he admitted to his homosexuality, others are ambiguous. But the fact remains that when he appealed before the Allahabad High Court against the suspension, the court ordered the university to re-instate him.
The university, however, took its time. It said it hadn't received the court order yet. But Siras was still looking forward to returning the campus he loved and taught in for twenty years. Meanwhile, probably tired of the whole wait for justice or of the whole struggle, he may have killed himself. The police are yet to rule out suicide.
The university and the narrow-minded students who engaged in the witch-hunt against a man for his sexual preferences will now hold a condolence meet. One hopes they focus on his achievements in his chosen sphere of life rather than his private life.
It won't be far from the truth to imagine that many people will be secretly relieved that they did not have to see him back on campus. He wouldn't be there to remind them that they had a homosexual professor, nor would he be around to remind them of their intolerance to differences. Anything that doesn't conform to the majority is a sin, anything that fights this mindset is a bigger sin.
Which brings us to the question that is it enough for the law to decriminalise consensual gay sex? When will it be socially acceptable? Many of my friends would tell, to hell with society, but I wonder if one Siras would have not thought this during his last moments alive.
Darn the hypocrisy of it all. May his soul rest in peace in what one hopes would be a more tolerant netherworld.