Guftagoo with Markandey Katju

Justice Markandey Katju is the Chairman, Press Council of India. He was formerly a Judge of the Supreme Court of India. He topped the merit list of the Allahabad University's LLB examination of 1967, after which he practiced law in the Allahabad High Court specializing in Labour Law, Taxation and Writ Petitions. He comes from an illustrious family background. His father, the late Justice S N Katju was a judge at the Allahabad High Court. His grandfather Dr. K N Katju was one of India's leading lawyers and served as Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh and also as the Governor of West Bengal and Odisha. His uncle Justice B N Katju was Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court.

Justice Katju was famous for fast disposal of cases. He is known as a brilliant and bold judge and upholder of judicial restraint. His tenure as Chairman of Press Council of India has been no less distinguished and he has become famous for his unconventional views on many topics.


Anchor: Irfan

00:32 Introduction to Justice Markandeya Katju, Chairman of Press Council of India, Former Supreme Court Judge, 4 decades in the legal field, Began his career at Allahabad High Court, 'Justice with Urdu' book, Sanskrit Urdu, Lived in villages

02:21 Interview begins

02:51 Early life, Role of the intelligentsia in removing poverty, Went to villages to understand, Taught in a village for 1.5- 2 years, Then began with law, Make country prosperous the goal of his life

04:06 Judiciary connected with the common man

04:54 Important to read about and understand the country in order to serve the country, Habit of reading since the age of 10, Reads for 4- 5 hours every day, Important to interact with people, Hindustan a country of immigrants, Sanskrit Urdu culture a common culture because of interaction between immigrants, Read Urdu poetry, Hindustan Shayari, Surdas, Tulsidas, Rabindranath Tagore, Subramaniam Bharati, Shelley, Keats, Byron, Tennyson, Shakespeare, American poetry, Walt Whitman, Longfellow, German poetry, Heinrich Heine, French poetry, Russian poetry, Alexander Pushkin, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Pablo Neruda, Voice from within the heart and it's rendition style characteristics of Urdu poetry, Urdu greatest poetry in the world

09:19 Still believes in that comment he made about people, Belief in astrology nonsensical, Ideas that perpetuate poverty are bad, ideas that bring prosperity to the country and its people are good

11:41 Break

12:22 Interview resumes

12:50 Art and culture from Kalidas to Surdas, 2 theories about art- 'Art for Art's sake', and 'Art for social purpose', Second theory more valid for a poor country like India, Urdu poetry raises its a voice against social injustice, Faiz, Ghalib, Meer, Nazeer, Sahir Ludhianvi, Sufi touch

15:44 Commercialisation of society, Writing to make money only, Where are today's Dickens, Tolstoy, Sharatchandra, Premchand, Manto?

16:44 Social movements are there, Selfish and unpatriotic middle class, Socially conscious writing must keep on happening

18:15 Europe history from 17-19th century a transition from feudal to industrial society to become a modern society, Any transition cannot be painless

19:22 Age of prosperity after these 10-15 years of pain, Internal strife on the basis on religion, caste, This must be addressed

20:40 Break

21:10 Interview resumes

21:41 National Award for Excellence in Journalism by Press Council of India, National Press Day on November 16, One award for Urdu Journalism for the first time, Hasan Kamal awarded, Jury of S M Ashraf (Urdu Scholar and Commissioner, Income Tax), Anis Azmi (Secretary, Delhi, Urdu Academy), Vinod Sharma (Hindustan Times), Neeraj Vajpayee (Member, Press Council, UNI)

23:31 Propaganda against Urdu, Judgment when in Allahabad High Court that Urdu and Sanskrit be made compulsory between classes 3 and 7, Recommended to the Chief Minister

25:08 Divide and Rule policy, Urdu common language, not just of Muslims, Dr Manmohan Singh writes in Urdu even now, Urdu written in Farsi script, not in Arabic, Write Urdu Shayari in a printed book in Urdu on the left and Devanagari on the right

26:29 Difficult words must be explained at the bottom, This will help to understand Farsi, Advice to Urdu newspapers about dedicating one-third of a page to learning Urdu

27:39 Started Urdu Heritage Karwaan with Asif Azmi, Asif's idea, Restore dignity to Urdu, Functions in Delhi, Mumbai, Lucknow, Mushaira, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Hyderabad