‘Solicitor General Has Been Mischievous, I Stand By Every Word of My Speech’: Harsh Mander

In a nearly 45-minute interview to Karan Thapar for The Wire, Harsh Mander pointed out that immediately after he said “the decision can be taken on the streets” he went on to speak at great length about how it had to be taken non-violently and on the basis of love. In his speech he said “we have only one answer to their hatred and that answer is love … most importantly, we have to fight with non-violence. Anyone who incites you to violence and hatred is not a friend of yours.” Harsh Mander also ended the speech with the slogan Samvidhaan Zindabad.



Harsh Mander told The Wire that by carefully selecting an edited version of the speech to make his case in the Supreme Court, the Solicitor General had acted “mischievously”. He suggested the intention was to deflect the attention of the top Court from more pressing issues, such as the hate speech petition he had filed. He said the Solicitor General’s claim that Harsh Mander had said he had no faith in the Court was false.