The HIV response in India finds itself at a crossroad – a choice between consolidating gains and frittering them away into a resurgence of the epidemic. The struggle began when policy makers chose to ignore evidence and voices from the ground and almost announced the end of AIDS in India. Riding on the trend of fewer new HIV infections and disregarding all feedback from civil society frontline workers, the fourth phase of the government’s National AIDS Control Programme – NACP 4 – stated that the AIDS response will be integrated within the health system of India by the time the programme ends in 2017. By inference, a dedicated AIDS programme was no longer needed; and hence a fifth phase of the AIDS programme – NACP 5 – would be ruled out. Not only does NACP 4 assume and affirm that it will achieve its results, but it goes a step further to declare that the entire government health system will thereafter be in complete readiness to deliver HIV prevention and care services. Ana...