Justice Kotwal clarifies he knows Tolstoy’s War and Peace but his question was about another book. Arrested activists’ lawyers say media created the confusion.
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Agreed it was wrong on the part of Media and others to jump the gun to target Justice Kotwal. Is it anti establishment to keep and read book War and Peace Junglemahal. I had with me Sarkar Anecdotes of Aurngazeb, can I be called follower of Aurngazeb.
Of course it’s not anti-establishment to keep an unbanned book and read it. Let’s not forget the book is only a corroborative evidence in sync with the actions the charitably called activist is charged to have committed.
It’s really ironic that the victims of the infamous Emergency are now behaving like political malcontents, nay even as stooges of 10 JP and Lutyens world. Look at the way they underplayed RAGA’s change of heart on Kashmir after Pakistan’s letter to the UNHRC. Now that the proverbial egg is on their face after Justice Kotwal’s clarification they are clutching at the straw of his alleged question about war in another country. No matter how much poison they spew out daily they are not going to succeed in their plans of ousting the present government for people have seen through their hypocrisy and superciliousness.
We are in a dangerous phase in journalism, where ideological beliefs of the editor and senior journalists are influencing the reporting. When I was growing up, the ideological stance of a newspaper was limited to the editorial columns. Now the entire publication is an editorial, where even the news is presented with an ideological bias. The Hindu and Indian Express are clearly guilty of it.
Here is the quote from The Hindu about what the judge had said: “The title of the CD Rajya Daman Virodhi itself suggests it has something against the State while War and Peace is about a war in another country. Why did you [Gonsalves] keep objectionable material such as books like War and Peace, books and CDs at home? You will have to explain this to the court,” said Justice Kotwal.
It is Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” which is about war in another country (Russia). So the Judge must have meant Tolstoy’s “War and Peace”, and not the “War and Peace” by Biswajit Roy.
If ideas in a little book is so threatening to a state that its executive and judicial stooges are so frightened and are clamping on it, then such a state is not worthy of representing the Indian citizens. If a state cannot defend itself as to why it’s a better system for its citizens against other political ideas in fair public debates and discussions, such a state is not worth its weight on paper. Sultans replaced Hindu Kingdoms, Mughals replaced Sultans, British replaced Mughals, Baboos replaced the British. Did Indians really attain freedom of thought and speech? Are they not basic fundamental rights guaranteed by the constitution? Why is the Indian way of democracy made so weak that it is fearful of other ideas? Who made it weak? The civilian baboos are the fat termites that have eating at the system for years that it has become a empty facade. Even corrupt netas get replaced once in a while, but the corrupt baboos get extensions even after surpassing their retirement ages. Have we run out of enough young people that we keep retaining the old senile baboos for ever? State of India serves Whom? Citizens or Bureaucratic handicaps.
Two major newspaper houses (The Hindu and India Express) highlighted this as the lead story, explicitly calling out Tolstoy’s book. These papers have pretensions to real journalism but end up functioning as opposition outlets. They never bothered to check or to even read the actual panchnama. They didn’t even note that the judge hadn’t objected to those books – the judge just asked for the intent. Of course, the story is gone from their front pages now, all without an apology or clarification or an explanation. It’s hit and run journalism that damages democracy and free press.
The difference between news and sensationalism is decreasing. One cannot just blame the WhatsApp University subscribers but also supposedly well-read journalists who are ever ready to jump the gun.
In fact all our ‘mainstream’ media journalists have been creating fake/ misleading news for decades. Social media gets all the flak when the origins of fake news lie elsewhere.
Agreed it was wrong on the part of Media and others to jump the gun to target Justice Kotwal. Is it anti establishment to keep and read book War and Peace Junglemahal. I had with me Sarkar Anecdotes of Aurngazeb, can I be called follower of Aurngazeb.
Of course it’s not anti-establishment to keep an unbanned book and read it. Let’s not forget the book is only a corroborative evidence in sync with the actions the charitably called activist is charged to have committed.
It’s really ironic that the victims of the infamous Emergency are now behaving like political malcontents, nay even as stooges of 10 JP and Lutyens world. Look at the way they underplayed RAGA’s change of heart on Kashmir after Pakistan’s letter to the UNHRC. Now that the proverbial egg is on their face after Justice Kotwal’s clarification they are clutching at the straw of his alleged question about war in another country. No matter how much poison they spew out daily they are not going to succeed in their plans of ousting the present government for people have seen through their hypocrisy and superciliousness.
We are in a dangerous phase in journalism, where ideological beliefs of the editor and senior journalists are influencing the reporting. When I was growing up, the ideological stance of a newspaper was limited to the editorial columns. Now the entire publication is an editorial, where even the news is presented with an ideological bias. The Hindu and Indian Express are clearly guilty of it.
It was a hit job by toadies of 10 JP AKG Bhavan and Rawalpindi.
Here is the quote from The Hindu about what the judge had said: “The title of the CD Rajya Daman Virodhi itself suggests it has something against the State while War and Peace is about a war in another country. Why did you [Gonsalves] keep objectionable material such as books like War and Peace, books and CDs at home? You will have to explain this to the court,” said Justice Kotwal.
It is Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” which is about war in another country (Russia). So the Judge must have meant Tolstoy’s “War and Peace”, and not the “War and Peace” by Biswajit Roy.
If ideas in a little book is so threatening to a state that its executive and judicial stooges are so frightened and are clamping on it, then such a state is not worthy of representing the Indian citizens. If a state cannot defend itself as to why it’s a better system for its citizens against other political ideas in fair public debates and discussions, such a state is not worth its weight on paper. Sultans replaced Hindu Kingdoms, Mughals replaced Sultans, British replaced Mughals, Baboos replaced the British. Did Indians really attain freedom of thought and speech? Are they not basic fundamental rights guaranteed by the constitution? Why is the Indian way of democracy made so weak that it is fearful of other ideas? Who made it weak? The civilian baboos are the fat termites that have eating at the system for years that it has become a empty facade. Even corrupt netas get replaced once in a while, but the corrupt baboos get extensions even after surpassing their retirement ages. Have we run out of enough young people that we keep retaining the old senile baboos for ever? State of India serves Whom? Citizens or Bureaucratic handicaps.
Two major newspaper houses (The Hindu and India Express) highlighted this as the lead story, explicitly calling out Tolstoy’s book. These papers have pretensions to real journalism but end up functioning as opposition outlets. They never bothered to check or to even read the actual panchnama. They didn’t even note that the judge hadn’t objected to those books – the judge just asked for the intent. Of course, the story is gone from their front pages now, all without an apology or clarification or an explanation. It’s hit and run journalism that damages democracy and free press.
The difference between news and sensationalism is decreasing. One cannot just blame the WhatsApp University subscribers but also supposedly well-read journalists who are ever ready to jump the gun.
In fact all our ‘mainstream’ media journalists have been creating fake/ misleading news for decades. Social media gets all the flak when the origins of fake news lie elsewhere.