90 per cent of Indians are idiots: Markandey Katju

Katju said that even the educated people in India voted in elections on caste or sectarian lines which showed how backward people are.

"I am saying all this because you need a big blow on your head to bring you to your senses, how backward you are. Unless you come to your senses and realise that you were taken for a ride by the British and later on by many communal forces which kept going on about Hindu-Muslim, the Kashmir problem cannot be solved," he said.

With regard to the Northeast, he said these areas had been ignored for long and employment and job opportunities had to be created there.

Speaking about the role of the Press Council, Katju said that it only had powers to admonish and censure about which not many people bothered. He said that Press Council be given more powers.

At the seminar where several senior journalists like K K Katyal, Kuldip Nayyar, Kumar Ketkar, H K Dua and Vinod Sharma were present, a statement was adopted on 'Reporting Conflict Zones'.

The statement said media persons working in conflicts zones be it J&K or naxal-affected areas face threat to their lives and families.

It said state institutions are expected to provide adequate protection to journalists regardless of their views and that employers should give them a legal and monetary back up.

The statement said there is general apathy, as a result of which there is threat to free flow of information.

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