When the CJI felt like Raj Kapoor
It’s not arsenalbut ‘soft power’ that makes the difference, says CJI
Highlighting India’s ability to use Bollywood and yoga to woo hearts and minds across the oceans, Chief Justice of India Tirath Singh Thakur said on Saturday that it was not tanks, guns and nuclear arsenal that make a country powerful but a persuasive approach, using cultural and economic influences.
“China and Russia are mighty nations in this area, but it is not tanks, guns and nuclear weapons that make the difference; it is soft power. The Chinese come to India for Buddhism.. it is the commonality of essentials that has brought us together,” Chief Justice Thakur said in his keynote address at the BRICS Law seminar on dispute resolution mechanisms.
The Chief Justice went on to share a personal experience of his trip to Russia to emphasise that Bollywood was a strong connecting link between two diverse cultures. “I was sitting at a market on a stool. There was an old woman sitting near me. She asked me ‘India?’ and I said ‘yes.’ She asked me ‘Ah, Raj Kapoor’, I said ‘yes.’ Then a man came to us and started singing an old number that Dev Anand crooned to Vaijayanthi Mala. Shopkeepers came out of their shops, everyone stopped what they were doing and came to us. I switched on the Internet on my mobile phone and put the song on for them... I felt like I was Raj Kapoor in Russia,” CJI Thakur recalled.
The Chief Justice is is known for introducing novel methods to promote legal awareness. He recently revealed that he was able to rope in actor Amitabh Bachchan and lyricist Gulzar to promote National Legal Service Authority (NALSA) on mass media.
Legal aid for poor
In an interaction with the media, the CJI said he wanted to promote NALSA's work to provide legal aid to the poor through advertisements which imbibe the spirit of national integration and unity in diversity on the lines of the popular 80s national integration spot, ‘Mile Sur Mera Tumhara.’
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