The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Nietzsche in court

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Tuesday, Jun 30, 2009
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Nietzsche in court

What could the great German 19th Century philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, who famously said “God is dead”, got to do with a commission of inquiry into attacks on churches in Karnataka?

The otherwise matter-fact-proceedings of the ongoing Justice B.K. Somashekhara Commission of inquiry on Monday had a spot of philosophy as one of the advocates raised an academic issue on castes and religion in the course of inquiry. This reminded Justice Somashekhara of Nitezsche and his thoughts of religion, and he even had one of the court attendants bring over a copy of Will Durant’s “The Story of Philosophy” for reference.

The book did its round among the advocates. As Justice Somashekhara said that Nietzsche eventually went insane, one of the advocates could be heard talking about the phonetic similarity between the Kannada words “neecha” (which means depraved or wicked) and the philosopher’s name.

It will not wash

On a busy evening in the newspaper office, an elderly person approached a reporter with a plastic bottle in his hand. He complained that the water supplied to his house by the BWSSB contained worms and brought the same to the office.

Time was when newspapers took such complaints at face value and flashed the photograph the next day. However, we live in such cynical times and the reporter concerned asked the gent whether his neighbours too had the problem. The answer was a vague mumble. The reporter then requested him to leave the bottle at the office and she would contact the authorities concerned.

On contacting BWSSB, she was told that the problem was an isolated one and that it was the complainant who had to rectify it. The pipeline connecting the main line and his residence had got damaged, resulting in sewage getting mixed in water. As per rules, it was the customer who had to get this repaired, the BWSSB said.

A few days later, the complainant turned up again to ask the status of his grievance. When he was informed of the BWSSB’s stand, he snapped: “It is BWSSB which is supplying water. Why should I get the line repaired?” and left the office in a huff.

Resolving disputes

It’s perceived that police have solutions for all problems, even if it’s personal. Recently Police Commissioner Shankar M. Bidari had an unusual grievance. A 30-year-old man and his brother’s mother-in-law wanted the assistance of police to resolve a property dispute between the three brothers. While the man was silent, the mother-in-law said, “The elder brother is enjoying the rent of the ancestral house following father’s death. He is not sharing it with the two brothers,” she said.

Mr. Bidari said it was a civil dispute and police have no role to play. But the woman was not willing to listen and she went on. “Give us protection to enter the property and demand the share,” she said. Mr. Bidari had to turn to the man. “Why do you want to create difference among yourselves? All of you sit together and chalk out the share. You will not achieve anything by going to police and courts.” It took a while for the man to convince and leave the office with his brother’s mother-in-law.

BAGESHREE S.,

ANIL KUMAR SASTRY, RAGHAVA M.

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