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.
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.
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