An Open Letter to the Supreme Court of India

Honourable Supreme Court of Bharat

Today I am writing a letter for you not as a journalist but as a common citizen of India. This letter may never reach you, but I can find solace in the fact that I wrote you a letter when the entire nation was silent on your comments.

Honourable Supreme Court of my country! I never expected the comments you made yesterday while hearing Nupur Sharma’s case. I never imagined that the Apex Court of the world’s largest Democratic nation would remain silent on religious bigotry. I never thought that you would make such harsh comments on a woman who is ‘underground’ to save her life from fanatics. I never thought that instead of castigating the terrorists of Udaipur, you would provide them a ‘shield’.

My lord! I expected that you must have exact factual details about the controversies surrounding Nupur Sharma. I expected that you must know what is happening against Nupur Sharma? But after hearing your comments, I had to kill my expectation. After that I realized that either you do not have complete information or you have wrong information. I don’t want to face the contempt. I am a common man, where will life be left if I have to run to Courts? So I don’t want to comment on your comments but do want to give some information.

Maybe my lord, you are too busy, you have not paid attention to those threats, to those incidents, to the comments that were made about Nupur Sharma.

You have said that Nupur Sharma should come on television and apologize to the country for her statement, as she gave her statement on the same platform. Absolutely My Lord! Nupur Sharma gave a statement on television, but do you know who forced her to get those words out of her mouth? His name was Taslim Ahmed Rahmani. During the debate, this same Maulana ji made many controversial comments regarding the holy Shivling of Hindus. Maulana ji was telling the Shivling as a fountain. You haven’t commented on them? You didn’t ask Maulana ji to apologize?

Now let’s go ahead, I hope you will not be angry. Nupur Sharma apologized after making the statement. Whatever political party she was in, that party also took action against her. You must know what happened after that. In the name of demonstration against Nupur, whole country was engulfed by violence. Cars were burnt. Places were ransacked. Common Hindustani had to face a lot of trouble, My Lord. We couldn’t even get out.

We were hoping you would take notice, but you didn’t. Maybe you are busy; nevertheless, we have become used to living like this. Violence happens every time. Fire breaks out. Every time we look at you, the ocher-painted Tilak Marg building on which our country’s flag stands and is called the Supreme Court. But every time you are busy. You also disappointed us on the Citizenship Amendment Act and farmers’ protests. The pattern was repeated on Agnipath Scheme as well.
Well, let’s move on. There was not only a demonstration against Nupur Sharma, but she was threatened with death and rape. Threats were made to kill her family members. But you didn’t do anything, My Lord. You must have been busy!

Respected Court of my country! It would be satisfactory if it had stopped just there. FIRs were lodged against her in many parts of the country. Slogans were raised to do ‘Sir Tan Se Juda‘. Well in a Democratic country there are demonstrations, but who gave them the right to kill anyone? What happened in Udaipur was it right? My Lord! Maybe you do not even know about the terrorist incident of Udaipur, I will take the trouble of informing you. Don’t treat it as an act of contempt. I’m just giving you information.

My Lord! Udaipur is in Rajasthan. Kanhaiya Lal Teli lived there. By profession, he was a tailor. He made his living by sewing clothes. It is said that one day his son mistakenly put a post on Facebook in support of Nupur Sharma. Two Islamists slit his throat and killed Kanhaiya. Not only this, they made a video of him and also made it viral on social media. After this, they also threatened to kill the Prime Minister of the country.

My Lord! Whatever statement Nupur Sharma made, right or wrong, that can be discussed, the law is working on it. But no moral principle in the world should justify the act of slitting the throat of those who support her. From where is this right? In the 7 minute hearing yesterday, you made all the comments and dismissed Nupur Sharma’s petition. She had requested you that all the FIRs registered against her should be transferred to Delhi. You said go to the High Court.

My Lord! There has been an FIR against Nupur Sharma in Bengal, so should she go there? Where thousands of mobs have threatened to kill her. An FIR has been lodged against Nupur Sharma in Kashmir, so should she go to Kashmir where threats are being made to separate her head from the body. These threats are being made from the Masjids? How My Lord, how can you say that?

My Lord! Please, don’t consider this as contempt. I just want to say one last thing to you. You have also held Nupur Sharma responsible for the Udaipur incident. Do you know that this will increase the spirits of Islamists even more? Do you know that those killers and other religious fanatics like them will now use your statement to hide their barbaric act? Do you know that before Kanhaiya Lal, Kishan Bharwad also lost his life for a social media post?

The only difference is that there were knives here, bullets there. Do you know that these same Islamists had also brutally murdered Kamlesh Tiwari in Lucknow? If you know, then why did you make these comments? And if you don’t know then why are you there? Don’t charge me for contempt, My Lord. I know our freedom of expression ends here, but still I have courageously asked a question. Don’t charge me for contempt please.

My Lord! I know you will not read this letter but still I am writing this letter to you. I am simply writing this with the hope that I can answer myself that when the entire nation was not speaking a word against you, when this nation of 130 crores people was silently listening to your unnecessary comments, at that time I wrote you a letter.