Those seeking political mileage finds it easy to promote violence, says SC judge

KOCHI

: Supreme court judge

Mohan M Shantanagoudar

said those who seek

political mileage

find it very easy to promote violence and unrest and divide the population by exploiting people's fear of being attacked and of being deprived of what is rightfully theirs.


He was speaking at the 12th annual convocation ceremony at the National University of Advanced Legal Studies (NUALS) in Kochi on Saturday. “the current global political climate is governed by fear and hatred of the Other. The ‘Other’ is anyone, who is not the same as oneself on any perceived marker of identity – such as nationality, religion, caste, ethnicity, skin, colour, language, sex or gender and so on. Those who seek political mileage find it very easy to promote violence unrest and divide the population by exploiting people's fear of being attacked and of being deprived of what is rightfully theirs, he said while addressing the audience.

He also called upon the budding advocates to raise voice against spreading misinformation in the age of mass communication. “As the technology of mass communication continues to grow in leaps and bounds, it is our solemn responsibility to prevent and speak up against acts of spreading any misinformation or idea that is bigoted and plays upon anyone’s ignorance or vulnerability. In both short term and long run, bigotry and divisiveness deprive a nation of the peace and prosperity that can only come through unity amongst her people,” judge said.

He also urged the advocates to remain rooted in rationality and critical thinking. “To be able to fight the divisive ideas being aggressively propagated nowadays, first of all, one needs to be firmly rooted in rationality and critical thinking, of which the cardinal rules is to never accept any idea or proposition at face value, but to determine its validity by critiquing and questioning it, he said. High Court chief justice Hrishikesh Roy who is the

chancellor

of the university, vice chancellor prof K C Sunny and others were present at the function. Anakha K Vijay received the C K Sivasankara panicker Memorial Endowment gold medal for highest aggregate marks in the BA LLB (Hons) degree examination.