Ex- Indian SC judge terms partition an attempt to divide Hindus, Muslims
Press Council of India (PCI) Chairman Justice (r) Markandey Katju called for the unification of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh into one secular state on Saturday.
He was delivering a lecture on the role of media in promoting secularism, organised by Lokmat Group of Newspapers.
“We must not be Hindu nationalists, or even Muslim, Sikh or Christian nationalists. We must all be Indian nationalists. India is a country of diverse people and can not be run for a single day without secularism,” Katju said while terming those dividing the country in name of caste or religion as anti-national.
When asked by reporters later whether he was referring to Narendra Modi he refused to comment.
Katju did not spare the media either. “Instead of attacking communalism the media promoted it when a segment of the media became part of the Ram Janmabhoomi agitation instead of covering it. I would not like to name them,” he said.
Any of type of fundamentalism, be it Hindu or Muslim should be uprooted, said the former Indian Supreme Court judge.
“Look at the state of affairs in Pakistan. They wanted to have an Islamic state but it has turned into a ‘JurassicPark’. There are schisms between Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan provinces. Sometimes I feel it is not a country at all but just a creation of the British to divide Hindus and Muslims. India, Pakistan and Bangladesh should reunite into one secular country,” said Katju.
He said the media has been demonizing Muslims and that had alienated the community.
“Whenever a bomb blast occurs, within a short time many TV channels start saying that an email or text message has come from some Muslim organisation like Jaish-e-Mohammad or Indian Mujahideen claiming the responsibility. This demonizes the entire Muslim community,” he said. An e-mail or text message could be sent by any mischievous element. In fact, 99 percent of the people in all communities were generally good, said Katju.
Often an attempt is made to depict all Muslims as terrorist,” he said.
He termed Mughal King Akbar as the first secular leader who laid the foundation of modern India through his policy of universal tolerance. He was ahead of his times. However, even today most of the people in India were very backward in case of caste and communalism and even voted on these basis, said Katju.