Being human

Last week, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was released by the Scottish government after serving just eight years of his life imprisonment sentence.

Last week, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was released by the Scottish government after serving just eight years of his life imprisonment sentence. He was let off on compassionate grounds and allowed to go home to Libya, as he was suffering from terminal prostate cancer and had less than three months to live. The man was responsible for killing 270 people in an unimaginable act of terrorism after planting a bomb in a trans-Atlantic flight in 1988.

Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi (L) welcomes freed Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi (R) in Tripoli late on August 21. pic/afp

It's difficult to understand why a government would release a self-confessed convicted terrorist, risking the wrath of 270 families. The ruling party would surely not be elected again if the resulting outrage is anything to go by. But that's the risk the Scottish National Party took when it chose to look at al-Megrahi as a human being which is more than what he deserves.

The justice secretary who was responsible for al-Megrahi's freedom said that compassion and mercy are about upholding the beliefs we seek to live by, remaining true to our values as a people no matter the severity of the provocation or the atrocity perpetrated.

And that's where the beauty, however horrific the incident may look logically, of this situation lies. It's compassion a deep awareness of and sympathy for another's suffering that makes us human. If I were a Scot, I would've been proud of the country. While it's impossible to feel sorry for al-Megrahi, the Scottish government did not let the balance of justice and mercy a great achievement in any legal system be dictated by media hysteria or political hypocrisy.

Scotland, and hence Great Britain, can truly call itself a civilised society because of its ability to be compassionate, which doesn't always mean forgiving and forgetting. Humanity is not advanced, but retarded by keeping dying men in jail.

Is such an act of mercy possible in India? I don't think so. Even the smallest of incidents brings our anger and hate to the fore. When we are all pumped up to beat up the man who grazed our car, it's unlikely we'll find the best part of our heart.

Parita Patel is Chief Sub-editor with MiD DAY