Is India really a democracy? Hard to believe

The former Supreme Court Justice Markandey Katju is absolutely right.  The govt. of  India must prosecute the police officers who ordered the arrest of the two women for the "crime" of writing  some comments on facebook.  To millions of Hindus, Bal Thackeray was someone who kept the Indian muzzies in Maharashtra, muzzled ... and for doing that they thought of him as the great superman of  India and not someone who had an army of rioters and gangsters at his beck and call.  However, to Muslims and to many others he was but a gangster.... a hero gangster maybe .... but still a gangster. A supremo Indiano Mafiaso.   And to even hint about that is a problem?  Grow up India.

As India's financial capital shut down   for the weekend funeral of a powerful politician linked to waves of mob violence, a woman posted on Facebook that the closures in Mumbai were "due to fear, not due to respect." A friend of hers hit the "like" button.

For that, both women were arrested.

Analysts and the media are slamming the Maharashtra state government for what they said was a flagrant misuse of the law and an attempt to curb freedom of expression. The arrests were seen as a move by police to prevent any outbreak of violence by supporters of Bal Thackeray, a powerful Hindu fundamentalist politician who died Saturday.

"We are living in a democracy, not a fascist dictatorship," Markandey Katju, a former Supreme Court justice who now heads the Press Council of India, wrote in a protest letter to the chief minister of Maharashtra.

Katju demanded that the state government suspend the police officers who had ordered the arrests and prosecute them.

The women withdrew the comment and apologized, but angry Thackeray supporters ransacked an orthopedic clinic run by the uncle of one woman......