Justice Markandey Katju was an eminent judge of the Supreme Court of India and formerly, Chairman of the Press Council of India. A man with extensive juridical skill and knowledge which accompanies said experience.
And when such a person writes and is active in the blogosphere, people take note. Keeping this in mind, he may wish to screen what he publishes under his name, online or otherwise.
Particularly, calling M.K. Gandhi a British agent who harmed India, is not something that will endear him to a lot of people.
Interestingly, he begins the post by acknowledging that he will face a lot of flak for this piece of creative writing. So he knew what he was saying would cause some to get frustrated, some to feel exasperated and some to wonder how much time retired people have on their hands.
Oh, lest we forget, some probably just went…
But we refuse to judge a judge for making such judgy comments on the Mahatma.
Gandhi was a great man, with profound ideals and a strong resolve. A leader of the masses, who gave direction and a purpose to our freedom struggle and was instrumental in our achievement of independence.
However, he was a man. And men have their faults.
Justice Katju writes about how Gandhi and his devotion to Hinduism indirectly propagated the divide-and-rule policy of the British. Katju also propounds that Gandhi led the freedom movement away from a revolutionary struggle to ” a harmless nonsensical channel called Satyagrah.”
Personal views, mixed with extra strong, oft controversial opinions, seem to be a trademark of the former judge’s writings. But when the largely good side of Gandhi’s legacy is completely ignored and the ‘father of the nation’ is instead declared to be a British agent, we feel some logical step in the argument is missing.
Then again, Katju, has been courting controversy, before you could spell controversy.
Remember the time when he said judges can’t have live-in relationships?
Or when he was being really… creepy
Justice Markandey Katju needs to understand and appreciate the influence he may have on people.
While a blog may contain personal views, people often take it as the official position of the person. He should keep this in mind before deciding to call the most famous leader of the Indian freedom struggle, an agent of sorts.
Also, just in, the story apparently does not stop with Gandhi. Subhas Chandra Bose too, has apparently been naughty.