SC judge said can't do good unless you are dictator: Goa CM

Even a Supreme Court judge feels that if you want to do a good thing today, you cannot do it in a democracy, you have to be a dictator, Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said Thursday.

Analysing Justice Anil R. Dave's comments during a conference in Gujarat earlier this month, Parrikar told the legislative assembly during a discussion on the education ministry that in the times we live in, one has to endure a continuous battle to do something good.

"I am not going into the statement if he is right or wrong. I am analysing what he said. He felt the Bhagavad Gita is good, but he felt that a good thing cannot be done unless he is a dictator.

"I think this is the biggest question mark on today's situation. If you try to do a good thing, then normally you have to face a battle, a continuous battle," Parrikar said during the ongoing monsoon session of the assembly.

Dave in his speech on "Contemporary issues and challenges of human rights in the era of globalisation" held in Gujarat University earlier this month had said: "Had I been the dictator of India, I would have introduced Gita and Mahabharata in Class I. That is the way you learn how to live life. I am sorry if somebody says I am secular or I am not secular. But we have to get good things from everywhere."

Parrikar said that while Dave may have advocated reading the Bhagavad Gita for learning values, others could opt for the Bible or Quran for value enrichment.

He added that the judge's first sentence about dictatorship was important, but misread by the media.

"That sentence is very important. His first sentence was - 'If I was a dictator'," Parrikar said.