Hanging Afzal Guru Economic & Political Weekly, February 23, 2013
With an eye on 2014, the Congress tries to out-rightwing the BJP. The execution of Afzal Guru on the morning of 9 Febru•ary is perhaps one of the darkest spots on the much stained track record of this present government. Apfart from the immorality of the death penalty itself, on which this journal has taken an unequivocal stand (EPW, “Justice or Revenge?”, 1 December 2012), the killing of Afzal Guru has been illegal and scandalous by the laws of this republic. The rejection of his mercy petition by the president was kept a secret, his family and lawyers were not informed and he was not allowed any of the rights accorded to a condemned man, to appeal the rejection of his mercy petition, to meet his family and to have a last wish. The government, in an astonishingly wicked act, sent the intimation of his impend•ing hanging by Speed Post in a manner which ensured that it reached his family after the execution when they had already learnt of it from television news. It is not just human rights activists but even Gopal Subramaniam, the public prosecutor who pursued the case against Guru in court, has gone on record to state that the act of the government was a “serious omis•sion in the administration of human rights” and a violation of the rule of law. Even those who may agree with the provision of capital punishment in the “rarest of rare” cases will •nd such behav•iour by our government to be obnoxious. Further, Afzal Guru’s case had too many loopholes and doubts which rendered the award of the death sentence open to challenge. It was unfortunate that the Supreme Court, while being cognisant of these, chose to err on the side of “collective conscience” rather than of caution. The unacceptable activism of our newly elected president, Pranab Mukherjee, in speeding up capital punishment has only compounded the folly. The death penalty is always, particularly in crimes committed in pursuit of a political aim, a deeply political decision. It was to guard against the possibility of a miscarriage of justice in such situations that the Constitution, and legal precedence, put in so many checks and balances in the award and execution of capital punishment. These have proved no match to stop the trigger-happy combination of a political president and a home minister, who is willing to even abjure basic human values in the pursuit of his political party’s electoral interests. It is time that the judiciary and human rights activists take the government to task for its breach of the rule of law and lay down the rights of the condemned prisoner so that no petty politician can play with these. The issue of Guru’s hanging aside, the manner in which the government has decided to collectively punish the popu•lation of the entire Kashmir Valley with a curfew and clamp•down on essential supplies, medicines and news in the after•math of the execution is a clear breach on the fundamental rights guaranteed by our Constitution to its citizens. Even in the national capital, the police illegally detained senior accredited journalists and their children too on precisely no charges. It is almost as if the government has decided to forgo even of a •g leaf of legality and behave like a thug. If anything these actions will further alienate people, not just in Kashmir, but equally those who believe that this government held out some promise, however partial and •edgling, of a progressive shift in Indian politics. It is clear to most observers that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, having by now run out of any worthwhile progressive idea to mobilise the people for the upcoming general elections, is now back to the old Congress trick of pandering to the chauvinistic and revanchist forces in society. This is a trick developed •rst by Indira Gandhi and then used extensively by her son and successor, Rajiv Gandhi, during his tenure as a prime minister when he • rst pandered to the Hindutva forces on Babri Masjid and then to the Muslim fundamentalists on personal law in an attempt to win back his popularity. After being in power for close to a decade, the UPA •nds itself unable to deal with in• ation, the economy continues to •ounder despite a “dream-team” in place in North Block, corruption and abuse of power only seem to grow, while social security schemes like the right to food and education or even cash transfers do not seem to be really taking off. The manner in which this government has hanged Kasab and Guru, and now cleared the way for the hanging of four associates of Veerappan, and the way in which it let the beheading and mutilation of soldiers on the The manner in which capital punishment is being revived will Line of Control hype up war hysteria on the streets seems to be have long-term negative consequences for democracy. It will help an effort to outmanoeuvre the extreme right-wing Bharatiya entrench the ideas which equate retribution with justice and Janata Party. normalise violence as a form of legitimate remedy for grievances. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "humanrights movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/humanrights-movement?hl=en. 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