Former Supreme Court Judge Markandey Katju has said that the retaliation for the terrorist attack in Pulwama may end up in the slaughter of unarmed Kashmiri civilians, turning even non-militants into militants.
Addressing a meet-the-press organised by the Ernakulam Press Club here on Saturday, Mr. Katju said attempting another surgical strike when Pakistan was on the guard might leave the Indian Armed Forces with a bloody nose.
‘Alienation of people’
“The continuous political stupidity over the decades has alienated the Kashmiri people and turned them bitterly hostile to India,” he said. He warned the government against falling victim to a Vietnam Syndrome-like situation in Kashmir, whereby good sense dawns only when body bags start arriving.
Mr. Katju also opposed the majority judgment of the Supreme Court permitting the entry of women aged between 10 and 50 into the Lord Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala. Driving home his credentials as an atheist who has no faith in any religion, he held the minority judgment of Justice Indu Malhotra as the correct one on the issue.
‘Of faith, not reason’
Religion was a matter of faith and not of reason and there was no point in questioning it. He said Article 14 of the Constitution guaranteeing right to equality could only be read with Article 25 ensuring the right to religion.
He dispelled the drawing of parallels between the abolition of Sati with allowing the entry of young women into the hilltop shrine based on the argument that the former involved the brutal killing of women while no physical harm was inflicted on women at Sabarimala in the name of custom.