The judgmental ex-judge: 11 times Markandey Katju stirred a hornet's nest

When it comes to voicing his opinions, former Supreme Court judge Markandey Katju doesn't believe in holding back. He kicked up yet another controversy on Wednesday, with what some called an "indecent" tweet tagging several Aam Aadmi Party leaders.

Responding to a tweet that said "AAP is going to clean sweep Punjab elections" only after Katju starts abusing party chief Arvind Kejriwal, the retired judge wrote "AAP shud distribute ration cards too. It will be useful in getting consensual sex."

Former AAP member Atishi Marlena, who was tagged in the tweet, criticised Katju for the comments. "Pls don't tag me in such indecent tweets, Mr Katju. As a public figure, you should know where to draw the line," she wrote, quoting his tweet.

Soon enough, social media was on fire, with criticism pouring against Katju, who has long history of controversial comments.

Here's a look at some of the remarks:

1. TARGETING TERESA

On Wednesday itself, Katju was stuck in another controversy for calling Mother Teres unscientific and a buffoon. "'Mother' Teresa, Zakir Naik, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Pravin Togadia, Sadhvi Prachi, Adityanath, etc, are all different sides of the same coin -- unscientific, feudal-minded religious fundamentalist and fanatic buffoons," he wrote.

When a reader objected to putting Teresa in the same vein as Zakir Naik and Adityanath, Katju wrote, "Give me 10 million dollars from shady people and I will also serve humanity."

In another attack he criticised the recently canonised nun for undergoing medical treatments in California.

In a blog, Katju had also called Teresa a fanatic and fraud. He is now facing the ire of Mother Teresa supporters.

2. GANDHI, BOSE, TAGORE: EVERYONE'S FAIR GAME

In a Facebook post in 2015, Katju claimed Mahatma Gandhi was "a British agent who did great harm to India", attracting the ire of many angry Indians. His remarks weren't limited to Gandhi however, as he called Rabindranath Tagore a "loyal British stooge" and Subhas Chandra Bose "an agent of the Japanese fascist imperialists."

He eventually apologised for his remarks. Katju was even dragged to court, the case was later dismissed.

In the same post he said cows were "stupidly depicted as a mother", "Burqa or hijab" was "stupidly supported by many Muslim men, and stupidly worn by many Muslim women", looking down on Dalits showed "the stupidity of most Hindus", Sonia Gandhi, Modi, Kejriwal, Mamata, Owaisi and other politicians of India should have been jailed and are alive because of "the crass stupidity of most Indians" and babas and astrology have followers because the country is made up of "90% idiots".

3. 'BEAUTIFUL SHAZIA ILMI'

In a series of tweets in January 2015, Katju sparked outrage when he said former AAP convenor Shazia Ilmi should have been BJP's CM candidate. Why? Because she's beautiful.

In a series of tweets, the former Press Council of India chairperson said Shazia Ilmi was "much more beautiful than Kiran Bedi" and "if Shazia had been made their CM candidate BJP wud have definitely won the Delhi (sic)."

4. JUST ADMIRING BEAUTY

His remarks on Ilmi bought Katju instant criticism. "Somewhere someone in Justice Katju's family is holding their head going "why dear God, WHY??" tweeted Omar Abdullah. Initially, Katju defended himself saying "the tweet was in lighter vein, & shud be construed as such" and asked people to develop a sense of humour.

But things got a bit out of hand in a subsequent blog post by the retired judge. "What is wrong with some of you people? Can't an old man like me admire a beautiful woman? By admiring a beautiful flower I am not plucking it, and by admiring a beautiful garden from a distance I am not trespassing onto it. Similarly, if I admire a beautiful woman I am not misbehaving with her, or taking liberties with her."

Obviously, these statements didn't go down well with people either.

5. INDIANS ARE FOOLS

Katju's trysts with controversies are not just a recent development. Back in 2012, he wrote a column for Indian Express, in which he wrote "90 per cent of Indians are fools" and that this was "the unpleasant truth".

One could say this is Katju's most used statement - reiterated over and over in social media posts, blogs and published columns.

He apparently made the same statement in a seminar too: "I say ninety per cent of Indians are idiots. You people don't have brains in your heads. It is so easy to take you for a ride." In his address, he also said "80% of Hindus and 80% of Muslims are communal." Speaking on another panel in 2013, Katju repeated these statements, and went on to term India as "an extremely backward country."

6. THE SUM OF ALL FEARS

A few months later, Katju revisited his "Indians are fools" comment, attempting to illustrate his observations with an example in a column for The Hindu. He wrote about an exchange with a mathematics lecturer from a UP university, claiming he proved him wrong. Here's the excerpt from the column titled, 'Professor, teach thyself':

Katju's comments backfired, as Hindu's readers rushed to remind him that the professor was indeed correct.

7. GUJARAT RIOTS

In 2013, Katju faced flak for a column in which he wrote it was hard to believe "Modi had no hand in 2002 (Gujarat riots)". His statement led him into a war of words with BJP leader Arun Jaitley, who called him "more Congress than Congress."

Most people who criticised Katju pointed out the fact that the former Gujarat chief minister has been acquitted by the country's courts, and that it was condemnable that a former Supreme Court judge placed such little faith in his own institution.

8. BEARDED MUSLIMS AND TALIBAN

In 2009, a high school student `from Madhya Pradesh sued his school when authorities opposed his choice to keep a beard. Katju, who was the judge on the case at the time, rejected his plea saying secularism could not be overstretched and a "Talibanisation" of the country could not be permitted.

"We don't want to have Taliban in the country. Tomorrow a girl student may come and say that she wants to wear a burqa. Can we allow it?" he said while passing the judgement.

Eventually, Katju apologised for his statement, and the order was withdrawn.

9. 'WON'T VOTE'

Days before the 2014 general elections, Katju questioned the foundation of democracies by suggesting that voting was nothing but farce. He even went on record saying he wasn't going to exercise his vote in the upcoming elections. Speaking to Headlines Today, he said, "I won't vote because my vote is meaningless... Votes are cast in the name of Jats, Muslims, Yadavs or Harijans. Democracy is not meant to be run like this. My one vote will not make any difference. Why should I waste my time in joining the cattle queue?"

Speaking to at the 'Right to be Heard' event, Katju added "Ninety per cent of Indians vote in droves like sheep and cattle."

10. 'PAKISTAN A FAKE COUNTRY'

As anger engulfed the country over the beheading of two Indian soldiers by Pakistani troops at LoC in January 2013, Katju added to the anger, but with controversy.

Calling Pakistan a "fake country", Katju said India's troubled neighbour resulted from a bogus "two-nation theory that Hindus and Muslims have two separate nations."

Speaking on a panel at Delhi University, he added, "the one and only solution to the Kashmir problem or the militancy problem in Pakistan is the reunification of India and Pakistan."

Needless to say, his comments weren't very well-received.

11. STAY AWAY FROM WOMEN

Earlier this year, in a blog post titled "keep away from women" Katju listed popular women, blaming them for events of history. He gave examples like: "Had it not been for Helen, there would not have been a Trojan war in which so many Greeks and Trojans were killed and Troy destroyed," "for Lady Macbeth, Macbeth would not have become a murderer" and "Bill Clinton almost lost the post of President of USA because of Monica Lewinsky."

He concluded the sexist piece saying, "A young woman's body is like a flame. Do not be like a moth and get burnt (by coming close to it)."

He shared the blog verbatim on his Facebook page too, earning widespread criticism.

https://www.facebook.com/justicekatju/posts/1226834584023752

Such observations from Katju seem hypocritical, considering he once suggested Katrina Kaif be appointed the next President of India. "Politicians will promise the moon, but not do anything for the public welfare. So since you must have someone, why not vote for a beautiful face?" he said.