From Urdu poetry to tales of encounters with ‘young ladies’—former Supreme Court judge, Justice Markandey Katju, has made a comeback on social media.
In his previous stint on Facebook and Twitter, Katju courted many controversies. Once, he said that the BJP would have definitely won the Delhi election if it had picked Shazia Ilmi instead of Kiran Bedi as its CM candidate because Ilmi was “much more beautiful”.
Since August 2021, though, Katju became silent on social media, occasionally retweeting posts by an account called ‘Indian Reunification Association’, which seeks to “peacefully reunite with India what is now Pakistan and Bangladesh, under a secular government.” There was no usual barrage of tweets that Katju is famous for.
On 11 October this year, he finally made a comeback on Twitter and Facebook with a couplet from Fizaq Gorakhpuri’s poetry. He followed it up with another Urdu poetry by Sahir Ludhianvi, along with a translation. He has been unstoppable ever since.
His profile on the Supreme Court website talks about him having a “wide range of interests”, including in Urdu, Sanskrit, history, philosophy, science and sociology. Social media seems to have given him a platform to indulge in these interests ever since he retired. He tweets an Urdu ghazal by Firaq Gorakhpuri, follows it up with four ‘hot takes’ on Congress’ Bharat Jodo Yatra, then moves on to translating a Sanskrit shloka, and returns to quoting Urdu poet Akbar Allahabadi to comment on the Karnataka hijab controversy. It’s a chaotic world out there and Justice Katju, who even has a suggestion for Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk, seems compelled to keep pace with it.
Perhaps, that’s why his request to Musk centres his own need to communicate…at length. “Please consider increasing the number of letters allowed on twitter. 280 is too few for any meaningful message. I suggest 420 wud be proper, or possibly 500. I am a former judge of Indian Supreme Court, & regularly use twitter,” Katju tweeted tagging Musk.
In another tweet, he explained what Halloween is. “I went for a walk&saw houses with witches, spider nets&pumpkins with lights inside.De have a festival called Halloween, in which children come to ur house&say “ trick or treat “, which means u have2give them some sweets etc, or de will do something nasty.”
Roman Emperors used2say : If u cannot give d people bread, give them circuses. India has slipped2position number 107 out of 121 countries in Global Hunger Index. So in India it can be said : If u cannot give people bread (or jobs, healthcare&good education), give them cricket
— Markandey Katju (@mkatju) October 31, 2022
Uniting countries to commenting on ‘young ladies’
Justice Katju was elevated as a judge of the Allahabad High Court in 1991, and was appointed as the acting chief justice of the court in August 2004. Three months later, he took charge as the chief justice of Madras High Court, and then of Delhi High Court in October 2005. He was elevated to the Supreme Court in April 2006 and retired in September 2011. After retirement, he assumed charge as the chairman of the Press Council of India from October 2011 to November 2014.
Katju made headlines during his tenure as a Supreme Court judge as well. For instance, in one of his judgments, he ruled that “if a man has a ‘keep’ whom he maintains financially and uses mainly for sexual purpose and/or as a servant”, it would not qualify as a live-in relationship and she would not be entitled to maintenance.
However, his social media personality has made him the most popular former judge online, with nearly 4 lakh followers on Twitter and about 9 lakh followers on Facebook. And he gives his followers a wide range of opinions, from political to philosophy.
For instance, on 19 October, he displayed hope that India, Pakistan and Bangladesh would “reunite”. “India,Pakistan&Bangladesh r really 1 country, only temporarily divided by British swindle called Partition on basis of bogus2nation theory.But 1 day we r sure2reunite under secular modern leadership determined 2rapidly industrialise India&ensure high standard of living2all (sic),” he wrote.
On Diwali this year, his followers saw his philosophical side. “Diwali symbolises victory of good over evil, light over darkness. In my opinion, good&light mean our people having high standard of living, with jobs&adequate incomes, proper healthcare&good education,etc. Evil&darkness mean poverty,unemployment,lack of healthcare&ignorance. (sic),” he wrote.
Three days later, on 27 October, he lent his support to former UK minister Suella Braverman, who had courted controversy over her anti-migrant stance and her comments that Indians overstay their visa in the UK. “I stand by @SuellaBraverman. I have carefully gone through her statements, & find nothing wrong in them. Isn’t it correct that majority of those overstaying their visas r Indians ? All this hullabaloo against her by Indians is silly @RishiSunak must be commended for restoring her,” he posted.
However, it is on Facebook that Justice Katju stretches himself and offers more context to his 280-character tweets. The restricted-by-word-count Twitter-takes turn into longer opinions and couplets of Urdu poetry are followed up with elaborate essay-like descriptions on why he thinks “Urdu poetry is thoroughly secular”. In one post, he recalls his encounter with a “young lady at a party…who was short of height”, and in another, he writes about a different encounter with a “young lady” who “kept talking that she had put on weight, that she must lose weight, etc etc, stuff which most women like to talk about.”
(Edited by Prashant)