We rushed to make Prakash Javadekar sound ignorant

So, people are all worked up about this speech by human resource development minister Prakash Javadekar, where he seems to imply that Subhas Chandra Bose, Sardar Patel and Jawaharlal Nehru were all hanged. There's a 50-second video of the speech too.

It shows him saying: "We salute our freedom fighters. So many bravehearts - Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Sardar Patel, Pandit Nehru, Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, all who were hanged, revolutionary Savarkarji and all other great fighters."

Now, if only he had used the word "and" in the middle there or had we started verbalising all punctuation - you know like Bhagat Singh "comma" Rajguru "comma" all who were hanged "comma" - we would not be dealing with this silly outrage.

Honestly, I'm no BJP fan. But what's wrong is wrong.

First off, Javadekar is a knowledgeable and well-educated man, with a long career map and published books and papers to his name.

If that sounds like a nil argument, consider that his party - the BJP - is currently working on declassifying the Netaji files.

So, he'd have to be really thick to declare a man as hanged, when his own party is working to demystify his death.

Besides, Javadekar is no Sadhvi Pragya or Yogi Adityanath - goof-ups will come with profound consequences at his level. Surely a minister with an important portfolio would know that.

Also read: Was Prakash Javadekar a terrible environment minister?

And I know BJP ministers have a habit of messing up history, but these freedom fighters find mention in our most basic history books. Not knowing their stories would require some special talent for ignorance - like saying Gandhi wasn't assassinated.

(Here's Prakash Javadekar talking about the same freedom fighters a week ago - saying they all contributed in their own way to the freedom struggle. Why would he mess up his facts now?)

And finally, Hindi-English translations can be so very tricky. "Jo shaheed hue hain" can be written as "those who were hanged" and "who were hanged" at the same time. So, really, it looks to me that it's all a matter of perspective, and a little bit of common sense.

People looking to create controversies will do their thing anyway.