Justice Katju AKhand BharatJustice Katju AKhand Bharat

If you have been living abroad for some time, on visiting India, you would have noticed huge changes that are taking place in India. India is modernizing and urbanizing and one feels – at least from what you see, India seems to be changing for the better. Added to that, Justice Markandey Katju, a former judge of the Supreme Court of India, is now campaigning for ‘New India’ that is fully industrialized, developed and REUNIFIED.

As the person in-charge of Indian Re-Unification Association (launched in February 2019), he believes in a ‘re-unified’ India. He would like to see Pakistan and Bangladesh coming back into India’s domain and becoming part of India to the pre 1947 status.

He rushes to add his unified India is not the same as BJP’s and RSS’s “Akhand Bharat”.

He simply does not believe in the concept of a nation based on religion which may pose a contradiction for the erstwhile Judge to admire Nehru. He is on public record to have rejected the insertion of the word “Secular” back in 1950.

Secular India came about only in 1976 as part of the 42nd Amendment by Indira Gandhi during Emergency’s sweeping changes.

Dream of reunification and the vision for development though, can shatter in a snap if you run into some issue and you need to interact with the government machinery. If that happens, all hell will break loose on you and you may have to go around in circles for years.

And you would rush to agree with Markandey Katju, a former judge of the Supreme Court of India, who says India is beyond redemption. Only a revolution, he says, is going to save India.

And Justice Katju is leading the crusade to bring that revolution.

History shows every revolution is preceded by a cultural transformation. Justice Katju says the cultural transformation of India has already begun and thus the revolution is now inevitable and on the way.

Bharat Times spoke exclusively to Justice Katju to discuss this and found the conversation to be brutally honest.

On assessing India since Independence – moving on to the ‘New India’, after the revolution (Justice Katju talks about), we asked him his assessment of some political leaders India has had.

Praising Jawahar Lal Nehru, Justice Katju says Nehru is the only leader he likes because as a leader only Nehru had the vision to “industrialise” India. And some work was done on that while Nehru was at the helm of affairs.

He does not like the Congress or the BJP and calls the BJP a fascist party. He minces no words when pillorying Sonia Gandhi for plundering India.

Rahul Gandhi has no talent and no role to play in Justice Katju’s New India.

But boy, does he claim 1984 Sikh riots were directly masterminded under the tutelage of Rajiv Gandhi? He is no doubt.

“Rajiv Gandhi gave oral instructions”, says Justice Katju about what happened to Sikhs in Delhi in 1984 when Beant Singh killed Prime Minister Mrs Indira Gandhi.

Justice Katju is unpretentious and does not claim to know all when it comes to the making and shaping of New India, post the revolution which he believes is the only way to fix India’s broken system.

He believes and emphatically claims the developed countries do not want India to develop ‘because no one cares about poor people and poor countries’.

And of course, as a passionate Indian, he would not let that plan succeed and would like to see India fully developed and industrialised to its strengths and capacity, and see India as a world leader.

Perhaps, it is a discussion for another round with His Honour Justice Katju. His prolific views including in the social media, have been controversial, entertaining and at times perhaps not portraying the erudition of the man, but they won’t leave you without pondering over things – INDIAN.

 

Till next time with Justice Katju.                                                                                                            with inputs from DM.