Rajesh Srivastava was a senior marketing executive in a multinational. A bright young chap, he was doing quite well-till one fine day, his world fell apart. Rajesh was framed for a business misdemeanour, and sacked. His story? On a business trip, a colleague discovered that he was not quite your average heterosexual. He was gay. When word reached head office, an excuse was found to sack him.

There you have it. Reality. A corporate story you won't read about in the pink papers. The subject remains taboo. The official stance: sexuality is a non-issue.

To be fair, it's true that many Indian companies take a benign view of alternate sexuality, and the hostility Srivastava faced is not typical. The dictates of business ensure that the ruling deity is competence-with a capital C. "The essence of human capital management," says R. Vidyasagar, Vice President (HR), Iflex Solutions, "is to leverage human talent irrespective of diversity. As long as an individual delivers the goods and his or her personal preferences do not damage the fabric of the organisation, the company is not concerned."

That's also how most gay workers want it to be. A non-issue. Their take: any public discussion could do them more harm than good.

So: why should you, the reader, be reading this at all?

One, because of your need to know. Two, because it has led to bitter divisions in the West, and is an issue here too (even if we pretend it is not). And three, because open discussion might actually be in everyone's best interest.

Diversity Aspect

How hospitable is India Inc to homosexuals? Vidyasagar's words would be the standard response of the modern firm: "We are not the moral authority on anybody's personal preferences. It's just that some people are made differently."

Discrimination is not very severe, confirms Ashok Row Kavi, a noted gay activist who also runs Humsafar Trust, a community organisation: "We rarely get people who complain that they were sacked for their alternate sexual orientation."

Yet, despite our best efforts, Kavi is the only person we found willing to be identified in this article for his sexuality. The fact is, homophobia is rampant. "Most of my colleagues are paranoid of gays," sighs Deepak Kumar, a closet gay working for a UK-based company. Would he reveal himself to his co-workers? Not a chance. So would it be for most of India's estimated 50 million gay population.

What they fear is hostility, arising from prejudice-derived largely from incomprehension of alternate sexuality. This is compounded by the lack of diversity appreciation workshops held in Indian companies. "In the US," says C. Mahalingam, Group Vice President (hr) of the Singapore-based Scandent group: "there is a legal framework that calls for affirmative action towards minorities. Several cultural taboos in India have prevented Indian companies from practising diversity so far."

But affirmative action works only for those who're identified openly as people who need it. Homosexuals are rarely identified as such.

So long as it remains a closet preference, the discrimination problem cannot really be addressed in any 'managerial' capacity. And so long as there are no norms for the open expression of homosexuality (an issue related closely to the wider social acceptability of the phenomenon), in the closet it will stay. At most, gays are willing to use undercover signals (an ornament, or a language code) that can be picked up only by others of the same orientation.

Yet, silent change is underway. India Inc is waking up. The CII recently organised a programme in Bangalore called 'Managing Diversity' that was attended by over 50 hr heads and line managers. Says Mahalingam, who coordinated the programme: "The need to accommodate diversity issues, a part of which is homosexuality, is arising out of business exigencies. For best results, the workforce of a company should reflect the customer profile of the marketplace."

Sexual Aspect

If it were just another matter of diversity, it would be simple. But most fireworks are caused by the 'sexual' part rather that the 'preference' part. Remember the controversy in America over letting gays into the US armed forces? It was a sex-related objection.

Can't ignore that. What about homosexual harassment, for instance? A casual pat by a senior colleague could mortify a young worker, just as work could suffer from fears of sexual favours being demanded by someone in authority. Says A.K. Sinha, the hr manager of The Park, a Delhi-based hotel that fired a senior gay executive this year on charges of harassment of some management trainees: "If I don't know about his preferences, I can't be bothered. But, the minute it enters his work, there is no place for him in the organisation."

Even more complex is the issue of cohabitation by mutual consent. Some argue that any secret sexual relationship at office can damage the work culture, and just as society expects heterosexual couples to declare their bond publicly, so should gay couples. If one of the two partners is in a position of authority, doubts could be cast on office meritocracy. Also, organisations like the army (or a salesforce) are known to complain that a single relationship between a senior and junior could destroy an entire unit's operating discipline. Leaders involved in gay relationships could find themselves unable to assert their authority.

But then, it's not always a negative issue. Iflex, for example, encourages even gay couples to work for the organisation.

Value Aspect

At the end, business is about creating value, and that's what matters. General observation suggests that gay men and women tend to gravitate towards so-called 'creative' fields, such as industrial design, advertising, fashion, film-making...

Is that a coincidence?

Sadly, there is no easily accessble research available on the subject. Informally, some contend that homosexuals are somehow counter-intuitive (compared to 'straight folk) in their approach to most issues, and this makes a difference to their ability to go beyond the ordinary and create something 'new'.

That, though, is conjecture. Yet, even other highly specialised professions have come to attract homosexuals for no apparent reason, according to C.A. Tripp, author of 'The Homosexual Matrix'. Software, for example.

But then, and this argument goes right back to the start-why make an issue of any of this? This planet has people employed in assorted professions and businesses, and people have varying sexual preferences. As simple as that.

Also, it's still not clear if the skills that this minority tends to exhibit are a function of sexuality. Could it simply be a mind that's more questioning? Or less prone to hasty conclusions?

At least one name has been changed