Most Indians seem to lack a sense of humour, and so one has to be careful before cracking jokes in India.

For instance, some years back I put up a Facebook post saying that since Pakistanis are constantly demanding Kashmir and harping about it, we should tell them that we are willing to give them Kashmir provided that they take Bihar along with it also.

Now anyone with a little common sense can understand that this was obviously a joke. Who am I, a retired judge, to give Bihar to Pakistan? And Bihar is far away from Pakistan, not a state like Punjab or Rajasthan contiguous to it. So how can it be given to Pakistan?

But most Biharis thought otherwise. Huge processions in many cities of Bihar were taken out against me, in which my posters were blackened and then burnt, my effigies hanged, and had I been in Bihar at that time, perhaps I may have been lynched, hanged, and burnt too for this monstrous ‘insult’ to the honour of Bihar.

Even the Chief Minister of Bihar, Nitish Kumar, castigated me in a speech.

Criminal cases for sedition, etc., were instituted against me.

Markandey Katju booked for sedition after offering Kashmir and Bihar to Pakistanhttps://t.co/Mi2wO9XAGC pic.twitter.com/mUBqmXUqVz

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