Justice Markandey Katju clarifies his remark that 90 per cent Indians are fools was not intended to hurt anyone but to awaken people to the realities

By Syed Akbar
Hyderabad, Dec 10: Press Council of India Chairman Justice Markandey
Katju on Monday clarified that his remark that 90 per cent Indians are
fools was not intended to hurt anyone but to awaken people to the
realities.

In a blog post in reply to the legal notice issued by two young law
students Tanya and Aditya, he said he was misquoted in the press
reports but it was true that he had said that 90 per cent Indians are
fools. “My intention in saying so was not to hurt anyone but to awaken
people to the realities, that is, the widespread casteism,
communalism, superstitions, and other backward traits in the mindset
of a large section of our people which is blocking our progress and
keeping us poor,” he said.

Justice Markandey clarified that the figure 90 per cent was not a
mathematical figure, it simply meant that in his opinion a large
proportion of Indians (not all) are fools.

“I made the statement not to harm the Indian people, whom I love, but
to benefit them. The truth is sometimes bitter, but sometimes bitter
medicine has to be given to an ailing person. I do not regard Indians
as inherently stupid or foolish. It is only at present that large
parts of our people are foolish. But there was a time when we were
leading the whole world in science and technology, and India was
perhaps the most prosperous country in the world,” he pointed out.

Recalling India’s glorious past, he said with the aid of science
Indians had built mighty civilizations thousands of years ago when
most people in Europe (except in Greece and Rome) were living in
forests. Before the coming of the British India was a prosperous
country. Its share in world trade in 1700 was about 30 per cent, which
fell to 2 per cent by the end of British rule and is still not more
than 3 per cent.