Kicking a Donkey

I must be the most abused person in India. Many people, particularly many mediapersons who want to raise their TRP ratings by ' mirch masala ', revel in attacking me, twisting my statements, putting words into my mouth which I never used, and other devious means. I  have been described variously as a crank, a megalomaniac, a maverick, a publicity seeker, a man with a hidden agenda, a wild man, a loose cannon, a man with a foot in mouth disease, a misogynist, a homophobe, a madman, and even a dog ( by a Chief Minister ).

 My usual response to most of these vicious, and often motivated, attacks, is to ignore them. As the great Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib said when asked why he does not respond to his critics " If a donkey kicks you, do you kick it back ? "

  However what really took the cake, and made me respond was a vicious attack on me by an anchor of a well known T.V. channel in connection with my blog ' Katrina Kaif for President of India ' ( see my blog justicekatju.blogspot.in ).

  This was written in lighter vein, as I even clarified later in another post, and in fact anyone with the slightest commonsense and even a little sense of humour would have understood that it was written in lighter vein. I would request the readers of this post to read my blog again and verify whether what I am saying is correct.

 But now see how the anchor of that  T.V. channel viciously distorts what I said and paints me as a misogynist

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXaDyHnzNKY

My views about women are well known, and are on my blogs ' On Womens' Emancipation ' , ' Rapes and other Crimes against Women ', etc which had been posted a long time back. There I had strongly argued for women's equality and womens' emancipation, and had said that the hallmark of a healthy society is the respect it shows to women. Can such a person be a misogynist or a sexist ? My judgments calling for death sentence for dowry deaths ( Satya Narain Tewari vs. State of U.P.), honour killing ( Bhagwan Das vs. State ( NCT) of Delhi), etc are available online and may be seen. I have repeatedly said that treating women as inferior is part of feudal mentality, which has to be destroyed if India is to progress.

  I may here mention that the anchor of the T.V. show, who repeatedly described my statement as ' shocking ', said several times during the show that we should give Justice Katju a chance to respond, but he never had the decency to do so. If he wanted to attack me, did journalistic ethics not require that he should also have included me in the show, or even after the show asked for my views ? Evidently journalistic ethics for some mediapersons is at a discount these days.

 I may mention that even before the T. V. show was put up in the evening, Mr. Sumit Nagpal of newsx channel had come to my residential flat in Noida in the afternoon and had taken my video interview of about 10 minutes on the subject. In that interview I clearly said that my statements about making Katrina Kaif the President of India, etc were in lighter vein.  Mr. Athar Khan never mentioned in his first show that I had earlier told Mr. Sumit Nagpal of his own T.V. channel ( newsx ) that my statements about Katrina Kaif, etc were in lighter vein. It was only in his second show, probably many days later that my interview with Sumit Nagpal was shown partially.

  The anchor called several persons during the T.V. show, who all attacked me, but I had no chance to defend myself. I do not know whether these callers were pre-selected, but certainly not one of them made the obvious remark that my statement was in lighter vein.

One lady politician said that people like me should be ignored. My reply to her is : Madam I would be quite happy to be ignored, and I have never sought publicity ( though I have sought publicity of my ideas ), but politicians would certainly be finished if they are not in the limelight constantly.

 Some of the callers said that I was mentally deranged. Well, well, such barks are not new to me. And anchors who publicize such remarks are also not new to me. Others commented on my remarks about gay relationships. I have repeatedly said in that connection that I am against criminalizing such relationships as it is one's private affair, but I certainly regard them as unnatural. Am I not entitled to express my view ? Those who attacked me claim to be supporters of freedom of speech, but they would deny me the same right. Wonderful logic !