Liberhan Blames Time for Report Delay
Liberhan holds forth on how the 17 years he took over the report is a mere dot in the vast ocean of time.
Madhavankutty Pillai
|
28 Nov, 2009
Justice M S Liberhan yesterday answered charges that he had missed the deadline for the Babri Masjid demolition inquiry report.
Speaking at a press conference which started 16 hours late, he said, “It is true that the inquiry was set up on December, 1992. It is true that the report was to be submitted within 3 months. It is also true that it was submitted after 17 years. But my question to you is this, what is time?”
Pausing for two hours, Liberhan went on. “Immanuel Kant has very clearly said time does not exist. It is only a mental construct. It is the mind which tricks us, you and me, into thinking that we exist within time. Space is also likewise but I will not dwell on it since we are talking about the Liberhan report.”
The former chief justice, whose delay has been called a disgrace by commentators and politicians, added, “In Zen Buddhism, time is only a thought. I have read in a book that time exists but does not exist, is permanent and impermanent, fixed and elastic, necessary and unnecessary, to be held in the hand and wondered at: why?” He paused again for an hour and said: “Why?”
To Hindu right-wingers, who had condemned his report, he referred the Bhagavad Gita. “It is specified there that one day of Brahma is a thousand ages of man. And what we are talking here, 17 years. Can you even conceive how infinitesimal that is?”
Among other things, Liberhan also alluded to the Greek sophist Antiphon and Parmenides, before concluding: “If whatever I have said so far does not make sense to you and the rest of the country, then I dont know what will. Think over it. There’s no hurry.”
Justice M S Liberhan yesterday answered charges that he had missed the deadline for the Babri Masjid demolition inquiry report.
Speaking at a press conference which started 16 hours late, he said, “It is true that the inquiry was set up on December, 1992. It is true that the report was to be submitted within 3 months. It is also true that it was submitted after 17 years. But my question to you is this, what is time?”
Pausing for two hours, Liberhan went on. “Immanuel Kant has very clearly said time does not exist. It is only a mental construct. It is the mind which tricks us, you and me, into thinking that we exist within time. Space is also likewise but I will not dwell on it since we are talking about the Liberhan report.”
The former chief justice, whose delay has been called a disgrace by commentators and politicians, added, “In Zen Buddhism, time is only a thought. I have read in a book that time exists but does not exist, is permanent and impermanent, fixed and elastic, necessary and unnecessary, to be held in the hand and wondered at: why?” He paused again for an hour and said: “Why?”
To Hindu right-wingers, who had condemned his report, he referred the Bhagavad Gita. “It is specified there that one day of Brahma is a thousand ages of man. And what we are talking here, 17 years. Can you even conceive how infinitesimal that is?”
Among other things, Liberhan also alluded to the Greek sophist Antiphon and Parmenides, before concluding: “If whatever I have said so far does not make sense to you and the rest of the country, then I dont know what will. Think over it. There’s no hurry.”
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