I have started writing a series of articles, the first two being given below, in response to being called a ‘controversial’ judge. The ‘Controversial’ Judge & Appeal to dalits and OBCs to demand end of caste reservations

This is the third in the series, and is called chapter 3.

Our national aim must be to transform India from a backward underdeveloped country to a developed, modern industrial giant, like USA or China, for only then can we abolish poverty, unemployment, malnutrition, lack of proper healthcare and good education, etc, which are our real enemies, and which have plagued us for centuries..

For achieving this, a vast number of our people must develop modern minds, by which I mean rational and logical minds, questioning minds, and scientific minds.

But the truth is that most Indians today have backward minds, full of casteism, communalism, and superstitions, and that is why I have often said that 90% Indians are fools.

        For saying this unpleasant truth many people commented “Justice Katju, you say you wish to keep away from controversies, but why it that controversies keep chasing you ?”

        I replied that while I have no desire to be controversial, but at the same time I have a great defect, and that is this: I cannot remain silent when I am seeing my country going downhill. Even if others are deaf and dumb I am not. So I will speak out. As Faiz said:

“Bol ki lab azad hain tere

 Bol zubaan ab tak teri hai” 

In our Shastras it is written:

                  “Satyam bruyat, priyam bruyat, na bruyat satyam apriyam”

Which means “Speak the truth, speak the pleasant, but do not speak the unpleasant truth”

I wish to rectify this. The country’s situation today requires that we should say “Bruyat satyam apriyam” i.e. “Speak the unpleasant truth”. Satyam Bruyat, Apriyam Bruyat

When I said that 90% Indians are fools I said an unpleasant truth. The truth is that the minds of 90% Indians are full of casteism, communalism, and superstitions. SATYAM BRUYAT – Justice Katju

Consider the following:

1. When our people go to vote in elections, 90% vote on the basis of caste or community, not the merits of the candidate. That is why Phulan Devi, a known dacoit-cum-murderer was elected to Parliament merely because she belonged to a backward caste which had a large number of voters in that constituency. Many MPs have criminal backgrounds. Vote banks in India are on caste and community basis, which are manipulated by our unscrupulous politicians and others, who polarise society and incite caste and communal hatred
2. 90% Indians believe in astrology, which is pure superstition and humbug. Even a little commonsense tells us that the movements of stars and planets has nothing to do with our lives. Yet T.V. channels showing astrology have high T.R.P. ratings.
3. Cricket has been made into a religion by our corporatized media, and most people lap it up like opium. The real problems facing 80% people are socio-economic —- poverty, massive unemployment, malnourishment, price rise, health care, education, housing etc. But the media sidelines or minimizes these real issues, and gives the impression that the real issues are lives of film stars, fashion, cricket, etc. When Rahul Dravid retired the media depicted it as a great misfortune for the country, whereas when Sachin Tendulkar scored his 100th century it was depicted as a great achievement for India. Day after day the media kept harping on this, whereas the issues of a quarter million farmers suicides, and 47% Indian children being malnourished, was sidelined.

The Roman Emperors used to say ” If you cannot give the people bread, give them circuses ”. Our Establishment says ” If you cannot give the people bread, give them cricket ”.

4. I had criticized the media hype of Dev Anand’s death at a time when 47 farmers in India were committing suicide on an average every day for the last 15 years. A section of the media attacked me for doing so, but I reiterate that I see no justification for the high publicity given by the media to this event for several days. In my opinion, Dev Anand’s films transported the minds of poor people to a world of make believe, e.g. a hill station where Dev Anand was romancing some girl. This gave temporary relief for a couple of hours to the viewers from their lives of drudgery. Such films, to my mind, serve no social purpose, but act instead like a drug or alcohol to send the viewer temporarily from his miserable existence to a beautiful world of tinsel.
5. In the recent Anna Hazare agitation in Delhi the media hyped the event as a solution to the problem of corruption. In reality it was, as Shakespeare said in Macbeth: “A tale, told by an idiotFull of sound and fury, signifying nothing”

At that time if anyone had raised some logical questions he would have been denounced as a ‘gaddaar’ or ‘deshdrohi’. The people who collected at Jantar Mantar or the Ramlila ground displayed the mob mentality, which has been accurately described by Shakespeare in ‘Julius Caesar’.

        After Caesar’s murder Mark Antony stirred up the Roman mob, which went around seeking revenge from the conspirators. One of the conspirators was named Cinna. The mob caught hold of another man, also named Cinna, who protested that he was Cinna the poet and not Cinna the conspirator. Despite his protest the mob said “Hang him for his bad verses” and lynched him.   

The Janlokpal Bill, 2011 (whose full text is available online) defines an act of corruption as an act punishable under Chapter IX of the Indian Penal Code or under the Prevention of Corruption Act vide section 2(e). Section 6(a) of the Bill says that the Lokpal will exercise superintendence over investigation of acts of corruption, and section 6(c) empowers the Lokpal to punish for acts of corruption after giving a hearing.

Section 2 (c) of the Prevention of Corruption Act define a public servant very widely. It includes not only government servants but also a host of other categories e.g. an employee of a local body, Government Corporation, judge, certain office bearers of some co-operative societies, officials of Service Commission or Boards, Vice Chancellors and teachers in the University, etc.

As pointed out by me in my article” Recreating Frankenstein’s Monster” published in “Indian Express” on 31.3.2012 there are about 55 lac, (5.5 million) government employees in India (13 lac in Railways alone), and there would be several lac persons of other categories coming within the definition of public servant in the P.C Act. Obviously one person cannot supervise and decide the lacs of complaints against them which would pour in. Hence thousands of Lokpals, maybe 50,000 or more, will have to be appointed to deal with them. They will have to be given salaries, housing, offices, staff, etc. And considering the low level of morality prevailing in India, we can be fairly certain that most of them will become blackmailers. It will be creating a parallel bureaucracy, which at one stroke will double the corruption in the country. And who will guard these Praetorian guards? A body of Super Lokpals ?

All this was not rationally analyzed and instead the hysterical mob that gathered in Jantar Mantar or Ramlila ground in Delhi thought that corruption will be ended by shouting “Bharat Mata ki Jai” and “Inquilab Zindabad”.

        It is time that Indians woke up to all this. When I call 90% of them fools my intention was not to harm them, rather it was just the contrary. I want to see Indians prosper, I want poverty and unemployment abolished, I want the standard of living of the 80% poor Indians to rise so that they get decent lives.

        But this is possible when their mindset changes, when their minds are rid of casteism, communalism, and superstitions, and instead they become scientific and modern. Justice Markandey Katju: Changing people’s mindsets

By being modern I do not mean wearing a nice suit or beautiful sari or skirt. Being modern, as mentioned above, means having a modern mind, which means a rational mind, a logical mind a questioning mind, a scientific mind. At one time India was leading the whole world in science and technology, Indians were once leaders in science and ‘Sanskrit as a language of Science’ online). That was because our scientific ancestors like Aryabhatta, Brahmagupta, Sushrut, Charak, etc questioned everything. However, we subsequently took to the unscientific path of superstitions and empty rituals, which has led us to disaster. Today we are far behind the West in Science and Technology.

The worst thing in life is poverty, and 80% of our people are poor. To abolish poverty we need to spread the scientific outlook to every nook and corner of our country. It is only then that India will prosper. And until that happens the vast masses of our people will continue to be taken for a ride, and remain poor and suffer from unemployment, malnutrition, etc

Consider also the following :

1. Tamilians are some of the finest and most intelligent among Indians. They have done the country proud in various fields — scientific research, mathematics, I.T., medicine, etc. In U.S.A. and Europe the science and mathematics departments of many Universities and Institutes are full of Tamilian Professors.

Yet Tamilians are some of the most superstitious people in India. This may sound a paradox, but it is true, and this just shows that scientific and unscientific ideas can co-exist in the same head. When I went to Chennai to take oath as Chief Justice of Madras High Court in November 2004 I was told not to take oath in Rahukalam time. I asked what was this Rahukalam, and was told it was the inauspicious time according to astrology.

Now Rahukalam is all nonsense (as is all astrology), but over 90% Tamilians believe in it. To give an example, a very senior South Indian lawyer practising in the Supreme Court told me that his Tamilian clients tell him not to begin reading their briefs during Rahukalam time.

2. Most Ministers and even many Chief Justices of High Courts take oath at the ‘auspicious’ time, as advised by their astrologer.
3. Judges of the Supreme Court are allotted houses in the Supreme Court Judges pool. One of such houses was 7 Tughlak Lane. Unfortunately some mishaps happened to some Judges who occupied this house, and thereafter no Judge would accept it thinking it was inauspicious. Ultimately, the then Chief Justice of India wrote to the concerned authority to remove that house from the Judges Pool, which was done, and another house allotted to the Pool.
4. Some years back it was announced in the media (which plays a prominent role in spreading superstitions) that Lord Ganesh was drinking milk. There was a rush of huge crowds in many cities in India to offer milk to idols of Lord Ganesh. Similarly, some years back a miracle chapati was announced. Many such ‘miracles’ keep happening from time to time, and most people believe in them.
5. This is a ‘baba bound’ society. Consider the number of ‘godmen’, and their huge following and huge properties they amass. The latest one claims to have a third eye, like Lord Shiva. In a leading English newspaper it was published today (18.4.2012) that he had told people in Raipur not to keep shivalingams at home for their welfare but put them in temples. As a result, temples in Raipur were found flooded with Shivalingams. He had also advised eating kheer, samasosas, golgappas etc. for various problems. And much of all this was lapped up by his followers, who have donated huge amounts to him.
6. When I was a Judge in Allahabad High Court it was announced that in Tamil Nadu someone had discovered a method of converting water into petrol. Some of my colleagues said that now we will get cheap petrol. I told them this was a fraud, because in science there is a principle that everything moves from a higher energy level to a lower energy level. Petrol is at a higher energy level, whereas water is at a lower energy level. Water (H2 O) is really burnt hydrogen, it is like ash. You can convert wood into ash by burning it, but how can you convert ash into wood? And later it was found to be a fraud.
7. Before finalizing a marriage most parents consult astrologers, and it is only if the ‘kundali’ matches that the proposal is finalized. The poor ‘mangali’ girl is often rejected for no fault of hers.
8. Every day a large number of T.V channels show astrology and all kinds of superstition. The Broadcast Editors Association announced that they will stop all this shortly but how can they? The members of these bodies are only employees, not owners of the channels. Their pay packages (sometimes going up to Rs.2 or 3 crores per year) are often linked with the T.R.P. rating. Their owners have given one simple instruction to them: keep the T.R.P. rating high.The owners only want profits, profits depend on advertisement revenues, which in turn depends on viewership.

Unfortunately the intellectual level of the middle classes (who are the main viewers) in India is very low. All they wish to see is lives of filmstars, fashion parades (often with half naked women), cricket (which is one of the main opium of the masses) and of course, astrology. And so this is dished out day after day to get high T.R.P rating.

9. Most Hindus are communal, and most Muslims, are also communal. As I have repeatedly pointed out, they were not communal before 1857. Before 1857 Hindus used to celebrate Eid, and Muslims used to celebrate holi and diwali. Muslim rulers, like the Nawab of Avadh, Tipu Sultan, etc. used to organize Ramlila, give grants to Hindu temples, etc. It was after suppressing the Mutiny that the British decided that the only way to control India was by divide and rule. Hence a deliberate policy was laid down by the British to generate hatred between Hindus and Muslims. All communal riots start after 1857. The English Collector would secretly call the local Panditji, give him money, and ask him to start speaking against Muslims, and he would also call the local Maulvi secretly and give him money to speak against Hindus. Other methods were also devised by the British rulers to create hatred between Hindus and Muslims, as explained in my article ‘The truth about Pakistan’ ( see online ). In fact Pakistan is a fake, artificial country ( like Israel ) created by a British swindle called Partition, on the basis of the bogus two nation theory, so that Hindus and Muslims keep fighting each other, and thereby India remains weak and backward see Justice Markandey Katju: Indian reunification is an idea whose time has come
10. Social evils like honour killing, dowry deaths, female foeticide, etc are still widely prevalent in India.
    
    

I have said all this not to demoralize Indians, but to point out to them the correct path to prosperity. It is only scientific thinking which can save us from the disaster to which we are headed.

India has a strong scientific heritage (see my article ‘Sanskrit as a language of Science’ online). It is only when we go back to the scientific path shown by our great scientific ancestors, Aryabhatta, Brahmagupta, Bhaskar, Sushrut, Charak, Ramanujan, Raman etc and spread scientific thinking widely that we can recover our former glory.