May I know how many perpetrators of the Gujarat carnage of 2002 have been given death sentence and lest I be accused of selective memory, how many people who actively participated in the butchering of thousands of innocents Sikhs on the streets of New Delhi in 1984 been sent to the gallows? The answer is, none. And what about those animals who not only violently gangraped and killed a young girl in a moving bus, but also horribly mutilated her body beyond imagination. Why are they enjoying the state's hospitality in a maximum security prison in the country?
But instead you chose to execute a man who naively believed in your criminal justice system. By no means am I suggesting that Yakub Memon was not guilty of the conspiracy to commit those horrific serial bomb blasts of 1993 in Bombay that accounted for the lives of more than 300 people, or that he didn't get a fair trial in India. My limited point is that his involvement in the actual planning and execution in that act of terror was peripheral and not central. Let me draw an analogy; say I am seriously annoyed with a group of people so much so that I wouldn't mind them being killed, and I find out that my brother is also thinking along similar lines and in fact he is going to do something about it. As his brother, even though I am aware all along of the conspiracy and the planning to kill those people, I decide to not only keep quite about it but also provide moral support to the whole thing. So, you can say that I am guilty by association but since i did not directory conceived or executed the operation, I would not be bracketed in the same league as my brother. That's how I would think anyway, and that is how more or less things transpired.
Call it a prick of conscience or whatever, but the fact remains that Yakub Memon gave up himself voluntarily to the Indian law enforcement authorities in the hope of making a bargain for lesser punishment in exchange of fully cooperating with the investigation and prosecution of that serial bomb blast. His best hope was a life in prison with no possibility of parole. This is not an unreasonable expectation in any civilized democracy like ours. I think because they have not been able to capture the chief executioner of the operation Tiger Memon and underworld lord of the crime syndicate Dawood Ibrahim who was the main financer for this inhuman act, they have taken out all their frustration on the one man who did not get away like those two. How far this insatiable bloodlust can be allowed to go on just to satisfy the so called "conscience" of society? As a democratic country keeping in line with the best practices around the world, we must move away from death penalty. But that is a debate for another day. If the previous government for the sake of a vote bank hanged Afzal Guru, then this is a government led by a macho nationalist and how can it let go of a golden opportunity to display its machismo to the faithful and hence Yakub Memon had to be sent to the gallows.
But instead you chose to execute a man who naively believed in your criminal justice system. By no means am I suggesting that Yakub Memon was not guilty of the conspiracy to commit those horrific serial bomb blasts of 1993 in Bombay that accounted for the lives of more than 300 people, or that he didn't get a fair trial in India. My limited point is that his involvement in the actual planning and execution in that act of terror was peripheral and not central. Let me draw an analogy; say I am seriously annoyed with a group of people so much so that I wouldn't mind them being killed, and I find out that my brother is also thinking along similar lines and in fact he is going to do something about it. As his brother, even though I am aware all along of the conspiracy and the planning to kill those people, I decide to not only keep quite about it but also provide moral support to the whole thing. So, you can say that I am guilty by association but since i did not directory conceived or executed the operation, I would not be bracketed in the same league as my brother. That's how I would think anyway, and that is how more or less things transpired.
Call it a prick of conscience or whatever, but the fact remains that Yakub Memon gave up himself voluntarily to the Indian law enforcement authorities in the hope of making a bargain for lesser punishment in exchange of fully cooperating with the investigation and prosecution of that serial bomb blast. His best hope was a life in prison with no possibility of parole. This is not an unreasonable expectation in any civilized democracy like ours. I think because they have not been able to capture the chief executioner of the operation Tiger Memon and underworld lord of the crime syndicate Dawood Ibrahim who was the main financer for this inhuman act, they have taken out all their frustration on the one man who did not get away like those two. How far this insatiable bloodlust can be allowed to go on just to satisfy the so called "conscience" of society? As a democratic country keeping in line with the best practices around the world, we must move away from death penalty. But that is a debate for another day. If the previous government for the sake of a vote bank hanged Afzal Guru, then this is a government led by a macho nationalist and how can it let go of a golden opportunity to display its machismo to the faithful and hence Yakub Memon had to be sent to the gallows.
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