Author: Markandey Katju

Apart from that, Gandhi also acted as a British agent by diverting the Indian independence struggle from the revolutionary direction of armed struggle which great freedom fighters like Bhagat Singh, Surya Sen, Chandrashekhar Azad, Bismil, Ashfaqulla etc were taking it, to the harmless channel of gimmicks like satyagrah, hunger strike, etc. 

We respectfully submit that many of the changes brought about by the BNS in India  e.g. providing for community service as a punishment for certain offences, or decriminalization of attempt to suicide ( except in certain situations) should be welcomed as steps in the right direction, and should be emulated in Pakistan

Now the Allahabad High Court has a heavy pendency of cases ( over a million ). Consequently, a case heard on a certain day usually comes up for the next hearing after 4-5 years. So the result of my orders in these cases was that in substance by judicial orders I converted one month visas into 4-5 years visas. Why did I do this ? Now that the matter is old I can reveal the real reason.

In the Indian subcontinent democracy can only mean a government for the people, not of or by the people, that is, a government which works for the welfare of the people. Such a government has never existed in India, since our politicians only seek power and pelf ( for which they polarize society on caste and communal lines by inciting hatred ), and have no genuine love for the people. 

Many people of a particular caste regard people of other castes as their enemies, e.g. many Kammas in Andhra Pradesh regard Reddys as their enemies and vice versa, many Lingayats in Karnataka regard Vokkaligas as their enemies, and vice versa, many Yadavs in UP regard Kurmis as their enemies ( though both castes are OBCs ), and vice versa, dalits regard upper castes as enemies, being oppressors, etc

On this occasion I appeal to Muslims and other non-Hindus, particularly in Pakistan and Bangladesh, to celebrate it along with their Hindu brothers and sisters with great gaiety and enthusiasm. 

Upto 1857 there was no communal problem in the Indian subcontinent. There were no communal riots before 1857, and Hindus and Muslims used to live together amicably, like brothers and sisters. They would help each other, and participate in each other’s religious festivals and occasions, Hindus participating in Eid and Moharram, and Muslims participating in Holi and Diwali.

Balochistan has huge natural resources, e.g. coal, oil, natural gas, and minerals such as copper, gold, silver, chromite, marble and limestone. These, instead of being used to benefit the Baloch people, were taken away by Punjabi businessmen, and now are being taken away by the Chinese, while the vast majority of Balochs remain in abject poverty. 

Islam and Prophet Mohammed have often been misunderstood. Islam came in the world as a great liberating force, as it spread the great message of equality. It gave social emancipation to the suppressed sections of society ( e.g. dalits in India ), and that is why Islam spread from Spain to Indonesia. 

The great Tamil poet  Subramania Bharati ( 1882-1921 ) wrote (around 1908-1910) powerful verses in favour of women’s emancipation, at a time when probably no one in India, or even in the World, even thought of women’s emancipation, and thus he was far ahead of his times :

But the Holocaust was committed by Germans and their European collaborators, not by Palestinian Arabs. Why should the latter have been punished for crimes committed by the former ? The establishment of Israel led to the Nakba–an Exodus and displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, who were subjected to horrible atrocities

NATO was an organization of Western powers, headed by USA, which was created after the end of the Second World War to prevent expansion of the Soviet Union into Western Europe by armed force. But with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991,and end of the Cold War, NATO should have been scrapped, as its very raison d:etre had come to an end. Now there was no more threat of Soviet expansionism, since there was no more Soviet Union. 

In 1901 Russia was under the despotic and autocratic rule of Czar Nicholas II. There was a strict press censorship, and it was dangerous to criticise the Czar or the government directly, so writers had to write allegorically and symbolically ( just as the Urdu poet Faiz had to do during the martial law regime in Pakistan ).