Invitation to an execution

Ever since Afzal Guru was executed for his supposed  involvement in parliament attack case, I have to a large extent stopped watching those meaningless TV debates on the issues of so called national importance. The incident has really bothered me at many levels least of it all is the unjustness and unfairness of the punishment. The man was sent to the gallows without having had any legal representation in the lower trial court during the crucial early stages of the trial. The  lawyer that was assigned to him by the court was actually working as an assistant to the court than actually doing the groundwork of defending him and there was also the small matter of him not visiting his client even once in the jail during those months! Then we had this bizarre observation of the Supreme Court while upholding  the death sentence to him that though there was no direct evidence of him being involved in the actual act of conspiracy to attack members of parliament, the collective conscience of society will only be satisfied if he is given capital punishment.
The last time I checked, you don’t hang somebody to death merely to ‘’satisfy the collective conscience of society’’. This malevolent tale of blood lust doesn’t end here. The way he was executed in such a crude secrecy defying all norms of graceful and civilized behaviour add to the fact that he was not allowed to meet the loved ones in his family, completes the sordid picture of a vengeful political establishment that would have done Gestapo some credit. Shame on us and more importantly, shame on those worthy people in the media (barring a few notable exceptions) whose job it is to ask uncomfortable questions to the powers that be, to ferret out the truth from the maze of misinformation and disinformation that governments usually indulge in, in order to hold a mirror to us. But they were too busy swallowing the govt’s version hook, line and sinker maybe in the hope of a largess from the State at a future date all of course, in the national interest. The Indian State has really not covered itself in glory.

Death Rattle

A man was sent to the gallows yesterday morning for his involvement in the attack on parliament. I guess judging by the kind of gloating by the political cabal and sundry news anchors, the ‘’collective conscience of the society’’ in the words of the Supreme court, must have been satisfied. The general reaction to Afzal Guru’s hanging was reminiscent of the blood lust you hear about the days of Roman Empire. The purpose of this piece not about the specific case of Afzal Guru, but about the larger issue abolishing the death sentence from the statute books. What is so distressing in all this, is the collective howl of indignation of a vast section of the middle classes and the media at the mere broaching of this question. If you are against capital punishment, you are termed a wooly headed liberal and worse, an anti national. My contention is we must move away from this medieval and barbaric practice of allowing the State to take away life of its citizen no matter how vile that person has proved to be and opt for the kind of sentencing where the guilty convict is made to spend time in prison till the end of his natural life in the case of murder. The whole purpose of punishment and sentencing brutal and hardened criminals is that the society is free of the fear of his presence on the streets and we can do that by compromising on his basic human right to life by taking him away from our midst and putting him in jail. All the evidence suggests that death penalty is hardly a deterrence against crimes like murder. I know I’ll be thrown arguments like how would I feel if I had a loved one who was subjected to murder and other heinous crime. This is the kind of loaded and hypothetical argument proffered by those who have run out of any coherent argument in favor of retaining capital punishment and whose only aim is to guilt trip you into agreeing with their point of view.

After all, more than one hundred and fifty countries have abolished death penalty in order to move their society and people towards a more humane form of justice and even in US where it is a matter governed by individual states, the fact that seventeen of the fifty states of the union have stricken off death sentence from there books is a clear pointer to the fact that a lot of people are disgusted with this method. But the most poignant example of a country and a society’s commitment to the compassionate human values is Norway where a couple of years ago, a rabidly right wing lunatic youth called Anders Breviek mowed down over one hundred and seventy young boys and girls who were part of a youth summer camp organized by the opposition labor party on an island, he stealthily approached the camp as if on a commando mission and launched himself with grenade and assault rifle, unleashing a horrifying carnage. Can it be anybody’s case that those who lost their near and dear once did not feel the pain and hollowness of their loss? Even during his trial, he did not show even an iota of regret or remorse. But it is a tribute to the resilience and commitment of its people and judiciary to stick by the values of compassion and decency that it did not allow the emotion to get the better of it and make an exception by giving him death, but stuck to its mores and convictions and handed him 70 yrs in jail. So for all practical purposes, he will not emerge out of jail alive. What does it tell about them and what does it tell about us.       

The shaming ark

The choice before us is depressingly simple. Either you make a dumbass kind of movie which is an insult to your intelligence and rather than offending anybody, goes out of its way to appease everybody, then no question is asked and everybody goes home happily. Or you make the kind of movie or produce a piece of art that not only raises the troubling questions of our times but also draws us out of our comfort zone in order to communicate the creators vision for change, and you have an infernal crisis on your hands. You will be made to look like the biggest imbecile on the planet. You would be advised to be careful, exercise restraint and given all kind of drivel about  the so called ‘’sensitivity’’ of the vast section of the unwashed masses. The old apologist for the old order will be back explaining  that the freedom of expression enshrined in the constitution comes with reasonable restrictions in the name of public order, morality, decency and all kinds of other laundry lists. At moments like those, you really feel like one of those stupid school kids who need to be disciplined for going against the grain of conventional thinking. You are at a loss to deal with this surging tide of anger at the injustice of it all where the government, instead of protecting the rights of individuals, bend over backwards to kowtow to the laws laid down by the bullies and thugs. And then there is this embarrassment coupled with the realization that gradually dawns upon you that maybe our culture that a lot many of us set a great store by, is not conducive to anybody who takes a contrary view against the prevailing mores of society. Someone who is willing to court unpopularity to make a larger point about anything is not looked upon as worthy of respect. If it was only a question of respect, then fine, I am not looking for respect, just leave me to my own devices but no, they are not going to let you be. You have to bend according to their wishes, their eddy of fury will not be calmed till they have dragged you down to their level to wallow in their own mediocrity.