Filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri summed up the drama in a tongue-in-cheek tweet: As it turns out the judge trolled all the woke 'war and peace' liberal warriors and in the end, made them look like idiots.
For a section of the media that has all along spewed vitriol on the government in the Urban Naxal case despite the police following the law, a court proceeding on Wednesday was too irresistible to pull out their guns.
It didn't matter if a Bombay High Court judge, Justice Sarang Kotwal, bore the brunt of their collective firepower as the real aim was to portray the government as oppressive.
'War and Peace at home? Explain', wrote a daily in its coverage of the bail plea hearing of Elgaar Parishad case accused Vernon Gonsalves. 'Bombay HC: Explain why you kept War and Peace at home', printed another newspaper. A foreign agency headlined its report: 'War and Peace lands India activist in trouble'. Social media warriors were outraged, while the Opposition got ammo against PM Modi.
But the euphoria of government-bashing lasted barely 24 hours when the same media outlets were forced to swallow their words. It turned out they had heard – or had chosen to hear – just a part of a book title: War and Peace in Junglemahal: People, State and Maoists.
"I was referring to 'Maowadhancha yuddh kaushalya..' that is related to war. I never referred to War and Peace [by Leo Tolstoy]...I am treating the matter [Bhima Koregaon case] with all the seriousness it deserves... I don't know what kind of reporting it is. I was really disturbed by all this," said Justice Kotwal on Thursday.
Filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri summed up the drama in a tongue-in-cheek tweet: As it turns out the judge trolled all the woke 'war and peace' liberal warriors and in the end, made them look like idiots.
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