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Merchants of Doom

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Modi ji always said that he will promote industrial growth and especially manufacturing, under his Make in India campaign. True to form. there is a new small-scale industry in town. The industry of outrage. The industry of fear-mongering. The industry of spreading so many lies that it all starts appearing to be true. Because he who shouts loudest is the one who is right, in this modern world.

I picked up the newspaper today morning and went to the editorial page, hoping for another exciting Chetan Bhagat piece on what young Indian men or women want. Unfortunately that wasn’t to be. Instead, i read three other columns, all by famous writers or opinion makers.

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First was by Shobha De. This one had her comparing the horrible attack on the French satire publication that resulted in a dozen dead people with the protest against writer Perumal Murugan, whose book has offended some Hindu people. Whether that outrage is justifiable or not is debatable as always, but i would think his mentioning a real temple and a real community and implying that childless woman from said community engage in a religious ritual where they can mate with strangers might actually be grounds for defamation, unless it is fact. Anyway, Shobha ji is not happy that our Prime Minister has not spoken against this attack on democracy and is wondering why he is silent when such grave offences are being committed.

“In Perumal’s case, the attackers had the temerity to enter his home. How different was this attack from the one in Paris? Both involved perceived offences to religious beliefs. And the victims in both instances wielded nothing more ‘dangerous’ than pens and pencils”

How was Perumal’s case different from the Paris attack? How about, he wasn’t shot dead point-blank, for one?

She signs off with “Be afraid. Be very afraid” — is that the unambiguous message being sent out?” For yes, a book gaining notoriety and instantly climbing on top of the bestseller charts on Amazon is making me wet my pants in fear.

The next one I read was by Aakar Patel, another distinguished gentleman whose articles seem to have a viral nature, for he has a distinctive writing style intended to be strongly offensive, if also insightful. This one was a call to the Congress to revive itself before the evil right-wingers destroy this country.

“This is being washed away by the mainstreaming of a nasty and angry ideology that is replacing the receding Congress. It is represented in Parliament by assorted sadhus and sadhvis whose venom is explained away by the Prime Minister as their rustic innocence.”

His column almost implied that the BJP didn’t win the elections, or is going on winning state after state, but that it is all the fault of a passive Congress that is letting them win. Yes, way to discredit the intelligence of the Indian voter.

I was in for more. The next one I read was from a man I greatly respect, Swaminathan S Aiyar, whose column Swaminomics is among the few places where one can find sanity. This week he wrote about the 25 year ‘anniversary’ of the Kashmiri Pandits being viciously chased away from their homes in Kashmir. Incidentally, I recently read Rahul Pandita’s excellent book ‘Our Moon Has Blood Clots’ which was a first-person account of what all transpired during that time, and beyond. Excellent read, if a bit gut-wrenching.

Sir had a different take this year. That even though Kashmiri Pandits were chased away and killed in hundreds (or thousands), THAT wasn’t the real tragedy. The bigger tragedy  was that Muslims were chased away from Jammu.

I nearly slammed my head into the table as I read this.

“The ethnic cleansing of Pandits from the valley was more one-sided than that of Jammu Muslims in 1947. Yet in sheer numbers and horrors, the Jammu episode was much worse. We have forgotten what happened then because it is politically and morally inconvenient.”

Why now are we comparing 1947 with 1990? In 1947, millions died on both sides as they fled their homes from India to Pakistan and vice-versa. Why bring it up to try to lessen the impact of what was done to Kashmiri Pandits in the 90s, with countless people butchered like animals, their women raped, their children orphaned, the ones who got away left to struggle in pathetic ‘refugee’ settlements setup for them. Refugees in their own country, after having lost their life’s possessions.

My fingers shake as I write this. Not sure if it is because of the cold or the deep sense of dismay I feel.

What has become of modern India? Why is everybody suddenly a troll? Why must one side’s misery be downplayed by saying that the ‘other’ side suffered more? Why must any good work being done by this clearly popular government (landslide victory and all that) be tried to silenced in meaningless controversies and lame attempts at creating outrage?

What hope does progress have if the so-called opinion makers are so hell-bent on keeping us ill-informed and perennially outraged?

– by Amreekan Desi (First published in Amreekan Desi Blog)
[Image courtesy: CNN]

Meet Censor board members Ira Bhaskar & Anjum Rajabali

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Leela Samson stole the show by resigning from the Censor Board after the film “MSG” was passed by the Appellate Tribunal. We have already discussed about her here. The next person to follow suit was CBFC member Ira Bhaskar, who resigned from the Censor board as soon as Samson left. Bhaskar said her resignation has nothing to do with Samson’s departure.

But who is Ira Bhaskar? Was she qualified to be on the Censor board? Bhaskar is a a Professor in Cinema Studies at the JNU. She has a PHD in Cinema Studies too. All this is mentioned in her profile on the JNU website. But there’s one more “qualification” which isnt mentioned: She is the mother of Film actress Swara Bhaskar.

But who is Swara Bhaskar you ask? She has acted in movies like Raanjhana and Tanu Weds Manu. Whether the mother of an actress, being on the Censor board can lead to Conflict of Interest issues is a question, but we mention Swara for another reason. Swara Bhaskar is a vocal Modi and BJP critic. See some of her tweets April and May 2014:

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If the mother is anything like her daughter, we now know one of the reasons why she was appointed on the Censor Board by Madam Sonia.

 

Another member of the Censor Board is Anjum Rajabali. He is a professional screenwriter, having worked on movies like Ghulam and Rajneeti. Prima Facie, he seems to be a genuinely worthy Censor Board member. Another virtue he possesses is a whole lot of “Secularism”.

In April 2014, almost the same time as Swara Bhaskar’s twitter outburst, Anjum Rajabali started a unique movement: A campaign to get Bollywood to vote for “Secularism”  . Although the campaign was ambiguous, Rajabali wasn’t, “It’s absolutely clear that we are referring to any party that does not have a secular approach, which means the right wing BJP and its allies.”

Mind you, Anjum Rajabali was not a mere signatory to a campaign or a supporter, he was the one who spearheaded it, it was his initiative. Now whether it was his brain child, or was there a woman, a very powerful woman behind him, is not known. But we certainly cant rule that out now can we? Hence it is not a surprise that he too has resigned today.

10 Things you should know about Leela Samson

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Some facts about Leela Samson which will not reach the Mainstream Media:

1. Leela Samson, former chairperson of the Central Board of Film Certification, resigned on 16/01/2015, because the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal granted permission to release the film, “MSG – Messenger of God”, which she had previously blocked from release. She termed it a “mockery of CBFC”.

2. Previously during her tenure, in February 2014, the Censor Board had objected to the content in a film called “Ya Rab” which  condemned Islamic fundamentalism. The film eventually was passed by the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal. Leela Samson did not feel it necessary to resign then, nor did she feel it was a “mockery”

3. Leela Samson was previously a dance teacher to Priyanka Gandhi

4. Till April 2012 she served as director of the Kalakshetra Foundation. She was forced to resign from the post after a former Kalakshetra teacher filed a writ petition against her for continuing to serve as director, beyond the age limit for Government institutions i.e 60 years.

5. A CAG report from her tenure at Kalakshetra accused the organization of financial irregularities.

6. The CBFC, under her, has blocked the release of Malayalam film Pithavinum Puthranum, “allegedly for hurting the sentiments of the Christian community” since 2012. But for the release of Aamir Khan starrer PK, she had to say this: “Every film may hurt religious sentiments of somebody or the other. We can’t remove scenes unnecessarily because there is something called creative endeavour where people present things in their own way

7. The Principal Accountant-General (PAG), Tamil Nadu and Puducherry has reported irregular appointments made during her term, “16 appointments made during Leela Samson’s tenure were not as per the rules/norms prescribed for the same and hence irregular

8. Her anti-hindu stance is clear from the fact that during her tenure at Kalakshetra, she removed a dancing Ganesha from the logo of the institution and ordered removal of all Ganesha Idols in the premises.

9. Just last month, the Censor board cut 4 minutes of a Kannada movie “Shivam”. The director claims portions where he showed “why and what led to the demolition of some of our temples“were chopped.

10. In 2012, the Censor board felt it necessary to show the film “Kamaal Dhamaal Malamaal” to a Catholic review member and chop of objectionable scenes due to protests by The Catholic Secular Forum (CSF), Association of Concerned Catholics (AOCC), Maharashtra Christian Youth Forum (MCYF), Catholic Residents Organization for Social Services (CROSS) & Catholics for Preservation of Faith (CPF)

Qualifications needed to be a member of Indian Censor Board

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As on 16 Jan 2015, there are 23 members in the Central Board of Film Certification (popularly referred to as the Censor Board). If you covet this position, it is necessary to know the qualifications that take you there. For starters, let us know the qualifications of current board members.

Anees Jung: She was a journalist with Times of India’s Youth Times. She has written many books, but not one related to movies. Being an author can take you to CBFC. I am wondering, if a blogger is qualified too?!

Rajeev Masand: He is a film critic on CNN-IBN and his barometer is always Hollywood movies. He has the luxury of seeing all Indian movies beforehand and has an unfair advantage over his competitors. Well, I almost forgot that competition in a socialist set-up don’t go hand-in-hand.

Shubhra Gupta: Like Rajeev, Shubhra is also a movie critic. She is with The Indian Express.

Mamang Dai: From Arunachal Pradesh, Mamang is also a journalist and author. Well, Congress government did know how to keep journalists and people in media happy!

Pankaj Vohra: If you had not guessed his profession by now, stop reading. He is the Hindustan Times Political Editor. They say that all politicians are actors. So, I see merit in why he is inducted into the Board.J

K C SekharBabu: Ok, ok! He is a Telugu film producer. Based on my research, he produced 8 films, out of which the only film which made waves was “Muthamestri”. Guess who the lead actor in the film was! You may have guessed it – it’s the ex-Congress minister and Telugu star Chiranjeevi.

Santokh Singh Choudhary: His eminent qualification was that he was a Congress MP from Jalandhar. Shame on other Congress MPs!

Raghu Menon: We had so many names and I was beginning to wonder if the influence of “babus” was low in the UPA regime. I was wrong. Menon, an IAS from 1974 batch, was from the I&B ministry.

Nandini Sardesai: Well, being a mother of on your sycophants does help. Yes, she is Rajdeep Sardesai’s mother and Sagarika Ghose’s mom-in-law. After this, I am sure Sagarika is an incompetent journalist. Husband got a Padmashri, mom-in-law got Censor Board membership and she didn’t get anything for her loyalty. Life is not fair!

Nikhil Alva: He is a TV producer and anchor. However, there is another important reason why he is on CBFC. He is the son of ex-Congress minister and Rajasthan Governor Margaret Alva. If you aren’t offspring of a Congress member, tough luck!

Ira Bhasker: She is a professor of Cinema studies at…..you guessed it…JNU, Delhi. But, my guess is that clincher was that she authored “Islamicate Cultures of Bombay Cinema”.

Chander Mukhi Sharma: Manish Tiwari being the I&B minister and him not awarding his cronies is beyond belief. Here is a trusted lieutenant, who was a councillor, was a President of the Chandigarh Basketball Association and was a Youth Congress Chief.

Amal Allana: If you are like me, you would have mistaken her for Amal Alamuddin (Clooney). Jokes apart, she is an eminent Theatre personality. But her name does give a hint!

Dipesh Mehta: He is apparently an author. He is such a mystery that even there is no information about him on Wikipedia.

All is not lost. There were some well noted theatre and film personalities on the board. Though I must admit that I am not aware of any of their involvement with the Congress party or its partners. They are: Pankaj Sharma, Arundhati Nag, M K Raina, Shaji Karun, Anjum Rajabali, Haranath Chakraborty, T G Thyagarajan. Surprisingly, absolutely no info was publicly available on the remaining members: Lora K Prabhu and Aseem Kayastha.

Thanks to Prasanna Vishwanathan for planting the idea for this piece.

Sources: Available public information requiring a few Google searches.

The current list of CBFC members is available here.

Any Neutral Satire site in India? YES!

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BJP or Narendra Modi, have no stake, officially or unofficially in any Satire website in India. But if you read some comments on Twitter, you might be fooled into thinking otherwise. Two of India’s most popular satire sites, FakingNews and TheUnrealTimes, are often accused of being soft on BJP, or pro-BJP.

It’s a different issue that these accusations are often from “liberals” who have publicly shown their leaning to other political parties, hence their criticisms are generally a case of severe butthurt. What makes this even more evident is that such voices have increased after BJP secured a massive victory in the Lok Sabha elections. But let’s play along and see if these accusations are actually true?

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I checked the front page of FakingNews at 1pm on 15/01/2015. I found:

1. 5 stories related to AAP, out of which 3 were old stories which were shown as related to a recent AAP story. So net recent AAP stories were 2
2. 6 stories related to BJP. One of them was the lead story. 3 such stories were in what I assume is the “featured” section. 1 was in the recently popular section, and another far below. Importantly all were recent stories, no old related posts.

So on a random check, FakingNews seems to have passed the neutrality test. I also checked their archives for the month of January 2015 and it supported the above result where I could find 6 stories directly mocking BJP, and 2 stories on AAP.

At the same time, I checked the homepage of TheUnrealTimes. I found:

1. 1 story on AAP. Another story which can be related to AAP is on Shazia Ilmi joining BJP, Although I feel it mocks BJP more. But for argument’s sake lets say 2 stories about AAP.
2. 7 stories related to BJP or the Central Government (including right-wing groups like VHP and Hindu Mahasabha, because “Liberals” believe all these are the same). The most recent story was the Shazia Ilmi joining BJP piece, where Kejriwal is seen trolling her. Another post on the blocking of websites by the Government was in the featured section.

So again, a similar random check of TheUnrealTimes also shows that they too pass the neutrality test with flying colours.

I have uploaded screenshots of both these sites at around 1pm here. Keep in mind here, both sites host content created by multiple authors, so in-order to substantiate a claim that a site is biased, a majority of authors on that site will have to be biased.

But I also want to touch on a larger point. Why do they have to be neutral? Can we not have a satire website which has a clear slant towards a political party, and is open about it? At least it will be better than MSM members who claim to be neutral but are rarely so. Also, how do they remain “neutral”? Are the writers not affected by the political scenario in the country? When a huge majority of the people in India have shown that they are “biased” towards a party (via Lok Sabha elections), can writers on satire websites be insulated from such “waves”?

And satire sites, need not be biased only because their writers or owners have a particular bent. They can choose to be biased for purely commercial reasons. Both the satire sites I talked about are fully for-profit ventures, so its natural they will promote stories which generate more eyeballs.

The fact is, as on date, jokes on Modi do not generate much positive traffic. There can some negative traffic if “Bhakts” choose to target you, but that’s only if the piece is offensive. As a fellow satirist, I have had this discussion very often that we are still not ready for jokes on Modi because the country is still enjoying the Modi honeymoon period. In fact, TheUnrealTimes, felt this upcoming drought of jokes way back in July 2014 and sportingly put up this satire piece. In a conversation with Ajayendar, a regular contributor at TheUnrealTimes, he mentions “Even if you force fit satire on the likes of Modi, Jaitley etc, the pieces tend to tank big time. At the end of the day, we are neither an NGO nor MSM to makes millions even with poor readership/TRPs”

I might have convinced some, but there will still be some folks who will continue having grudges against these sites, for them, I have the same reply most Right-Wingers get when they question the leanings of MSM: GO START YOUR OWN SITE!

Pope’s new Commandment: Thou shalt not kill, but “Punching in face” is okay

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Pope Francis, who was the favorite of many progressive minded people in the world, for his positions on homosexuality and science, yesterday made a statement, which shocked most of his fans. In his first response to the Charlie Hebdo Terrorist attack, the Pope, said nothing justifies the murders, BUT “One cannot provoke, one cannot insult other people’s faith, one cannot make fun of faith”. Oddly, his statements seemed to be in the same vein as some of our “liberal” voices, as we had shown earlier.

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Pope’s punch

He used an analogy to further his point, where he said that, if a dear friend were to utter a “a swear word against my mother, he’s going to get a punch in the nose. That’s normal“.

He continued by saying: “There are so many people who speak badly about religions, who make fun of them … they are provocateurs. And what happens to them is what would happen to [my dear friend] if he says a word against my mother.”

In the same breath, he condemned the killings by saying, “One cannot offend, make war, kill in the name of one’s own religion,” the pope said. “To kill in the name of God is an aberration.”

This came as a big shock to most supporters of Freedom of Expression, as the statements of the Pope indicated that he felt that attacking people who criticise religions is ok! He did say murder  was not justified, so does the Pope think that any other form of violence other than Murder is fine? Will this statement will be a source of support to all religious extremists all over the world? especially the terrorist killers of Charlie Hebdo journalists?

Going by this logic, Hindutva elements are left with no choice but to “punch in the faces” of Christian missionaries and evangelists, who are routinely accused of showing Hindu Gods and Goddesses as less powerful and fake.

This statement will make life hard for the followers of the Pope, since he is certainly not any “fringe” element, but the worldwide head of their religion. The Vatican immediately went into damage control by issuing a statement that the Pope’s words were “in no way intended to be interpreted as justification for the violence and terror that took place in Paris last week.” Again, this clarification only says the Pope doesn’t justify killing, but his “punch for my mother” analogy suggests that he supports other forms of physical violence, as a counter to verbal abuse.

Not surprisingly, some Catholic organizations came out and said that they fully subscribe to the Pope’s view. One such organization called the “Catholic League”, posted these views of their President, Bill Donohue, on their site:

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Bill has already been criticised heavily for his views which sided with Charlie Hebdo terrorists and blamed the cartoonists for their own death. If more such extremist views arise after this, the Pope will certainly have to answer some more tough questions.

This also shows that the representatives of two major religions of the world, Christianity and Islam, are somehow still struggling to come to terms with the modern ideas of Free Speech. Not only that, they are even willing to legitimize “limited use of force”, which is certainly a cause for concern.

It is pertinent to note that the Pope too has been the target of Charlie Hebdo satire in the past.  And now with his latest controversial remark, it is very likely, he will soon grace the cover of this French Magazine again!

10 Tweets Kiran Bedi should have deleted before “U-Turning” into BJP

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Yesterday, Kiran Bedi, former associate of Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal in the Lokpal movement, formally joined the BJP. She is seen as the unofficial Delhi CM candidate for BJP. This comes after months of Kiran Bedi warming upto the BJP via Twitter and other media. But not long ago, when she was still active in the Lokpal agitation, she made some tweets criticising the BJP and also Narendra Modi, the current PM. We bring you ten of those tweets, which we feel she should have deleted before her “U-Turn”

When Kiran Bedi criticised the then Gujarat CM’s “toothless” Lokayukta

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When Kiran Bedi raised questions on Narendra Modi’s secularism, inclusiveness and his role in the 2002 Gujarat riots

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When Kiran Bedi tried to suggest BJP and Congress are hand in glove:

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When Kiran Bedi raised questions about the criminals in BJP

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Twitter users expose Kejriwal’s Muffler

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Ever since his many TV appearances wearing a muffler, Arvind Kejriwal and muffler have become synonymous. In fact AAP supporters even coined a phrase “MufflerMan” for him, and trended it on Twitter for quite some time. Now Twitter users are wondering whether Kejriwal’s muffler protects him from cold or is it only for the optics.

Twitter user @rishibagree shows us this pic, in which Arvind Kejriwal, Sanjay Singh and Vishal Dadlani are sitting for a meeting, along with others. In this pic, he points out, that while all three of them are sitting together, Kejriwal needs a Muffler all around his head, and a sweater to protect him from the biting cold, Sanjay Singh is comfortable with a sweater, while Vishal Dadlani doesn’t need either and is sitting in a plain T-Shirt. Either atmospheric temperature changes with position or Kejriwal has a very low tolerance to cold while Dadlani, who lives mostly in Mumbai is more resistant to cooler climates

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Another Twitter user @Durgeshrai2013 has posted another picture of Kejriwal, this time from an interview with Barkha Dutt. He notes that while Barkha Dutt is comfortable in her normal Salwar-Kameez, Kejriwal needs his muffler and sweater to sit just 1 metre infront of her. Did somebody keep a window open next to Kejriwal? We must rebuke Barkha for this inhospitable treatment meted out to poor Mr Kejriwal

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Twitter user @ajayrdave also had similar views:


Harsh Mander – a tool in the hand of Evangelists?

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Harsh Mander, who was earlier appointed by Sonia Gandhi as a member of the “extra-constitutional” National Advisory Committee, has written an article recently, which glorifies and supports evangelical conversions by Christian missionaries.

Senior journalist and contributing editor at NewsLaundry.com, Mr Anand Ranganathan has, in a series of tweets revealed what could be Mr Mander’s motives behind such a post, and how it could be a clear case of “conflict of interest”. The tweets are reproduced as below:






Pearls of wisdom from Justice Katju

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Biology claims that about 60% of human brain consists of fat, Geography claims that about 70% of the earth is covered with water, WHO claims that 80% of the current polio cases are associated with Pakistan, but importantly, statistical claims leapt to another level when honourable Justice Markandey Katju, in 2012, claimed that “90 per cent of Indians are idiots” and “80 per cent Hindus and 80 per cent Muslims are communal”.

By the time, humans could have collected data to verify his claims about 90 per cent of the Indians, the former Chairman of Press Council of India and erstwhile Judge at the Supreme Court of India bombarded the universe with a series of jaw-dropping arguments. In one of his latest Facebook posts, written on 13 January 2015, Markandey Katju recommends Indians to elect beautiful women for all positions.

Grabar-Kitarovic, Katju
Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, who will become the President of Croatia in February 2015.

After quoting an example of the Croatian President, he expresses his concerns about the reality of promises made by politicians and then posts a link which directs to this photo (on the right) of the Croatian President.

The next section of this Facebook post ends with his usual last words, “Hari Om!”, but Justice Katju further spread his wings of wisdom, and in his blog, he suggests Katrina Kaif to be made the next President of India, with the condition that she sings ‘ Sheela ki Jawaani’ on her Inaugural.

If you are not convinced by his pictorial arguments just because you are troubled by his claims that 90% of Indians are idiots, you must calm your nerves. Not all idiots are bad people. Even though our dignified Justice Markandey Katju believes that 90% of Indians are idiots, he also stated that 99% of people are good. In a Facebook post written on 8 Jan 2015, Katju went beyond boundaries and quantified that 99% Pakistanis are good people, and so are 99% Indians and 99% Bangladeshis, Nepalese, Sri Lankans, Burmese, Americans, Europeans, Chinese, Arabs, Africans, etc.

On 25 December 2014, when Indians were joking and outraging on “Ghar Wapasi” and “Religion Conversion”, Justice  Katju left millions dumbstruck by a single post which insinuates sexism, misogyny, patriarchy, orthodoxy and dogmatism. In his Facebook post titled Gay Relationships and Gay Marriages, Justice Katju throws cosmic enlightenment on gay marriages, responsibilities of women, relationships, George Bernard Shaw, and suggests that ‘gay marriages serve no social purpose‘.

katju

Apart from discussing the purposefulness of gay marriages to serve nature’s requirement for continuing human species, he infuriates women by saying, “To fulfill this role of nature, a woman has to get hold of a man, not merely to make her pregnant, but also to look after her and provide for her financially while she is performing this role.”

He further fuels the anger by adding, “it is not men who pursue women, but women who pursue men. It is the Life Force which drives women to pursue and catch a mate, who will then look after her while she is performing nature’s serious and vital function of continuing the species”.

Long before delving into politics, culture and morality, Justice Katju also displayed his poetry lover avatar. In a series of tweets to Rajdeep Sardesai, Sagarika Ghose and Barkha Dutt, he appeals journos to tweet Urdu Shayari. Before deleting these tweets, he expressed his grief about lack of poetry sense in people:

barkha sagarika_ghose Sardesai

One can’t ignore his role in legalizing passive euthanasia, a death sentence for fake encounters, justice in the case of land-grabbing of village community land and many other landmark judgments, but then we can also not neglect his cosmic enlightening Gyan.

Hari Om!