Author: Markandey Katju

Ironically, when the song was sung by students at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, on December 17 during a protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act, a professor made a formal complaint that the poem was anti-India and communal. After that, the poem’s use of Islamic imagery was criticised in Hindutva circles, and IIT Kanpur set up a panel to investigate if the poem is “anti-Hindu”.

One can only say so much in a short article or interview. In my book India after Gandhi, I have examined in some detail to what extent India lived up to, and to what extent it failed to live up to, its founding values of democracy, pluralism, and economic security.

Unless we reunite under modern minded, patriotic leaders determined to lead a mighty protracted people’s struggle, culminating in a historical people’s revolution, which sets up a political and social order under which there is rapid industrialization and steady rise in the standard of living of the people, we will never be able to abolish massive poverty, massive unemployment, massive child malnutrition, skyrocketing price rise of essential commodities like food, medicines and fuel, almost total lack of proper healthcare and good education for our masses etc which are our real common enemies.

Balochistan has immense natural resources including huge reserves of oil, natural gas, gold, copper, minerals etc. All these were looted away by the Pakistanis, who have now handed them over to the Chinese, while the Baloch people, on whose welfare they should have been used, remain in abject poverty.

A great change has come about in the mindsets of a large number of Pakistanis. Let me explain. I am a well wisher of Pakistanis, […]

The reality is that the militaries of both India and Pakistan are unable to manufacture their heavy weapons, such as jet fighters, missiles, tanks, large guns, naval aircraft carriers, submarines, etc, because they do not have the technology to manufacture them. Hence they have to buy them at heavy cost from foreign arms manufacturers. For instance, the French Rafale jet fighter which India uses costs $288 million each

It is almost certain that now many countries which do not make their own aircraft or missiles will start buying Chinese jets and missiles, in preference to European, Russian or American ones, as they will be much cheaper, and yet as effective, if not more.

India and Pakistan are both poor countries, with massive poverty, massive unemployment, appalling level of child malnutrition, skyrocketing prices of food and other essential commodities, almost total lack of proper healthcare and good education for the masses, etc.. How can two poor people be each other’s enemies, and so where is the question of victory for any side ? They should instead join hands and fight against their common enemy viz poverty, unemployment, malnutrition, price rise, lack of proper healthcare and good education, etc. 

ऐसे बहुत सारे उदाहरण दिए जा सकते हैं जब बदले की भावना से भरे नेताओं के इशारों पर गैर-कानूनी और अनुचित गिरफ्तारियां हुईं. सवाल यह है कि सुप्रीम कोर्ट या हाई कोर्ट्स को भीष्म पितामह की तरह द्रौपदी के चीरहरण पर आंखें मूंद लेने की तरह, साफ नजर आ रहीं इन गैर-कानूनी गतिविधियों को नजरअंदाज कर देना चाहिए ?

 The term originated in the circulation war between Hearst’s New York Journal and Pulitzer’s New York World, where both papers sought to increase sales by using sensational headlines, exaggerated, unverified stories, and often even fabricated events. 

Unless we do that we can never hope to abolish our massive poverty, massive unemployment, appalling level of child malnutrition, almost total lack of proper healthcare and good education for the masses, and other great socio-economic evils which have plagued us for centuries. 

Why should I want to keep living in a country which resembles a madhouse ?

After the reactions and developments in India and Pakistan following the Pahalgam attack, and the loud, incessant jingoism going on in our subcontinent, fanned by our crooked politicians and our worthless and largely sold out media, the master minds who planned the attack, and whose agents are our politicians, are laughing at us, regarding us as fools who can easily be taken for a ride. 

So jingoism began on our worthless Indian media soon after the incident, with hawkish panelists ( many of them being retired generals, lieutenant generals or major generals, or self proclaimed ‘defence analysts’ ) appearing on TV shows and calling for revenge by military strikes against Pakistan. Demonstrations have been held in many Indian cities demanding revenge against Pakistan

After the recent Pahalgam attack in which over two dozen Hindu tourists were killed, many people, including politicians, mediapersons, and others, have been inciting communal hatred, and propagating that Indians and Pakistanis are each other’s enemies. Some have even called for war on Pakistan. 

The Pahalgam attack will serve two purposes (1) It will further inflame communalism in India, which will benefit the BJP in the coming elections, as it will consolidate the Hindus, who are otherwise divided on caste lines. 

Why does the media not focus on the real problems of massive poverty, unemployment, child malnutrition, lack of healthcare, etc ? Evidently because the media owners have given instructions, at the instance of the political leaders who are in power, that the attention of the people must be diverted from the real issues.

I, though an atheist, am a real Muslim and a real Sikh, because I am totally against caste. Prophet Mohammed and Guru Nanak, if they had been alive today, would have blessed me, and they would have cursed today’s fake Muslims and Sikhs in the Indian subcontinent for practising something directly contrary to their teachings

Abdul Basit is as shameless as Gen Munir, but is an intelligent man, who knows which side his bread is buttered. He knows that it is dangerous to speak against the Pakistan army or its chief, for the real ruler of Pakistan is its army. So he does not want to be ‘disappeared’, as has been the fate of many critics of the Pakistan Establishment. 

I am afraid Kapil has not answered the basic question whether it is a legitimate exercise of power by the Supreme Court to amend the Constitution by a judicial verdict, when that power has been given only to Parliament vide Article 368.

I have also explained that the developed countries do not want India to emerge as a modern industrial giant, like China, for if it does, then with our cheap labour we will undersell the goods of the industries of developed countries, making the latter collapse ( since they will not be able to face our competition ), throwing millions out of employment.