The law of the land has prevailed. Once the agonisingly tortuous juridical process of our land is completed in its entirety, Ajmal Qasab will have his due comeuppance
Jai ho!
The law of the land has prevailed. Once the agonisingly tortuous juridical process of our land is completed in its entirety, Ajmal Qasab will have his due comeuppance.
But the question uppermost in the minds of people across the length and breadth of our vast country is 'when?' Will it take months, if not years, for the nation's collective anguish to be salved?
The manifestly infuriated mood of the nation cannot be ignored. The public demands retribution now, irrespective of whether or not it will serve as a deterrent to the forces of evil.
Given the gravity of the crime, namely terrorism and waging war against the country (no less), among others, it is incumbent upon the government to leapfrog this momentous matter over the labyrinth of appeals and mercy petitions to speedily obtain validation from the highest judicial authority of the land, (if the defendant chooses to pursue it that far, which he probably will).
If we, as a people, can today hold our heads high for the prompt and exemplary manner in which judge ML Tahiliani conducted the Qasab trial in accordance with the noblest traditions of civilised rule of law, the escalating criticism of the police machinery for bringing about the acquittal of Fahim Ansari and Sabauddin Ahmed for lack of sufficient evidence is equally justified.
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| Act now: Home Minister P Chidambaram |
The learned judge pronounced the death sentence on terrorist Mohammad Ajmal Amir Qasab for crimes in the 'rarest of rare' category. But, he was compelled to order the acquittal of his alleged Indian accomplices because of, from all indications, the ham-handed manner in which evidence was presented and charges framed against them.
It's small comfort, especially for devastated families of the deceased and injured, to learn from the prosecution that it will appeal against the verdict or that the acquitted will be found guilty in other cases in which they are accused.
Some of the spontaneous celebrations that followed the sentencing yesterday may have been indecorous, but they were, equally, an expression of the shock and outrage that all Indians have felt since the ghastly 26/11 carnage.
Now that we have proved to the world at large that we are not a banana republic in which kangaroo courts, with a proclivity for rough-and-ready eye-for-an-eye and a-tooth-for-a-tooth justice a la Guantanamo reign supreme, can we hope that closure will be applied expeditiously?
After Qasab's sentence, there are now a ridiculous number -- 309 to be precise -- of convicts on death row across the country.
According to high profile Chief Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam, who has 627 life imprisonments to his credit in his distinguished career, Qasab's hanging could take at least 18 months.
Being extreme and irreversible, it is understandable that a death sentence in any civilised and mature society should be carried out, if at all, with the greatest circumspection all the way up to the Supreme Court in a manner that establishes the guilt of the accused beyond all reasonable doubt.
Since the law of the land, as it prevails at any given time, should be paramount, one need not go into abstruse debates at this juncture as to the objective of punishment in jurisprudence (whether it should be punitive/retributive or exemplary/deterrent etc).
What's important is that punishment, once guilt is established, should be prompt to serve its purpose.
As the truism goes 'justice delayed is justice denied'. The plethora of inordinately delayed mercy petitions under Article 72 of our Constitution make a mockery of our jurisprudence.
The last hanging in India took place in 2004. According to sources in the state home department, there are already 11 convicts who have been given the death sentence but are still awaiting execution (MID DAY, May 6).
Twenty-seven mercy pleas, involving 49 death row convicts, have been sent to the President of India, 25 are with the President or her secretariat awaiting a decision, and two, including the plea of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, are being examined by the Home ministry.
Can we hope that the terrorism masterminds: including Lashkar-e-Taiba founding member Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, Jamaat-ud-Daawa (JUD) chief Hafiz Saeed, and handlers Abu Kafa and Abu Hamza -- all bred, trained and harboured in Pakistan -- are extradited and brought to book in India post haste?
Ditto, foot soldiers like Kafa, Abu Mawiya, Fadulla and Abu Anas, trained in camps in Daura-e-Khas, who (but surprisingly not David Coleman Headley) have been named by Qasab.
Can we also hope that government, while resolutely pursuing its seemingly futile but unavoidable peace initiatives with our rogue neighbour, which is in a state of perpetual denial, will make it abundantly clear that enough is enough, that our patience has run out.
Most importantly, can we expect our honourable Home Minister and his government to do everything in their power to ensure the safety and security of our present and future generations?
Yes, Mr P Chidambaram, the buck stops with you and your government machineryu00a0 -- yet again!
