Ashish Nandy says sorry for article on Guj 2007 polls in SC

Political analyst Ashish Nandy on Monday tendered an “unconditional apology” in the Supreme Court for a 2008 article written in a national daily, which had led to the registration of an FIR against him for allegedly portraying Gujarat in bad light.

The Apex Court, which took on record the content of Nandy’s apology, quashed the FIR lodged by the Ahmedabad Police on a complaint filed by VK Saxena, chairman of Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC).

In his letter, Nandy “deeply regretted” that his critical analysis of the outcome on the Gujarat Legislative Elections held in December 2007 had “hurt the sentiments of many”.

Saxena, who is also the president of Ahmedabad-based NGO National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL), had filed the complaint against Nandy for his article – ‘Blame the Middle Class’, published on January 8, 2008, in the national edition as well as local editions of a daily.

A Bench comprising Justices V Gopala Gowda and Arun Mishra disposed of the appeal filed by Nandy against the 2010 decision of the Delhi high court, refusing to quash criminal proceedings by the Gujarat Police for allegedly promoting communal disharmony.

The Bench passed the order in the presence of writer’s senior advocate Kapil Sibal and Saxena’s senior counsel Mahesh Jethmalani, after going through the draft of the apology, in which the noted author also regretted that his article caused “pain” to many which was “not intentional”.

“I tender my unconditional apology for any hurt that my article has caused and reiterate that it was not intentional and was against my own beliefs and principles,” he said.