10-23-2006, 03:39 AM
Letter to the Editor, The Statesman, Kolkata
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Lesson to be learnt
Sir, ~ The debate over the question whether Afzal Guru should be hanged for proven complicity in the terrorist attack on Parliament is becoming more bizarre with the passing of each day, as the media gloats over the size and thickness of the hangman's noose said to be made in Buxar Central Jail!
It is time to examine the moral basis for death sentence. I am reminded of Alice in Wonderland wherein the Queen pronounces: "Sentence first ~ verdict afterwards." While the Kashmiri leaders, including a past and the present chief ministers, warn of a great conflagration in the valley in the event of the death sentence being carried out, it would be a civilised gesture for the government to have a fresh look at the capital punishment. In this context, I recall the fog-begrimed Friday of 6 January, 1989 when Satwant Singh, in the pink of youth, and a greying Kehar Singh were hanged in Delhi's Tihar Jail, for their alleged role in the assassination of Indira Gandhi. While Satwant had confessed, evidence against the elderly Kehar was purely circumstantial.
On the previous day, Ram Jethmalani had pleaded with a three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court, only to be turned down: "We see no reason to interfere with the rejection (of the mercy petition) by the President."
That same evening, India's sole representative on the International Commission of Jurists, Fali S Nariman telephoned the President, Mr R Venkataraman, to convey that the commission's secretary-general in Geneva had issued an appeal to the President of India for a reprieve for Kehar Singh. But Prem Kumar, secretary to the President, politely put off the caller: "Rashtrapatiji is sleeping and cannot be disturbed... At any rate, the President can only act on the advice of the council of ministers." The Prime Minister (Rajiv Gandhi) was holidaying with friends.
Kehar Singh's body, along with Satwant's, was hurriedly ~ almost surreptitiously ~ cremated in the jail premises. The whole episode was soon forgotten. There is a lesson to be learnt.
~ Yours, etc., Saran Singh (retired IAS), Kolkata, 17 October.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
http://thestatesman.org/page.news.php?clid...33882&usrsess=1
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Lesson to be learnt
Sir, ~ The debate over the question whether Afzal Guru should be hanged for proven complicity in the terrorist attack on Parliament is becoming more bizarre with the passing of each day, as the media gloats over the size and thickness of the hangman's noose said to be made in Buxar Central Jail!
It is time to examine the moral basis for death sentence. I am reminded of Alice in Wonderland wherein the Queen pronounces: "Sentence first ~ verdict afterwards." While the Kashmiri leaders, including a past and the present chief ministers, warn of a great conflagration in the valley in the event of the death sentence being carried out, it would be a civilised gesture for the government to have a fresh look at the capital punishment. In this context, I recall the fog-begrimed Friday of 6 January, 1989 when Satwant Singh, in the pink of youth, and a greying Kehar Singh were hanged in Delhi's Tihar Jail, for their alleged role in the assassination of Indira Gandhi. While Satwant had confessed, evidence against the elderly Kehar was purely circumstantial.
On the previous day, Ram Jethmalani had pleaded with a three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court, only to be turned down: "We see no reason to interfere with the rejection (of the mercy petition) by the President."
That same evening, India's sole representative on the International Commission of Jurists, Fali S Nariman telephoned the President, Mr R Venkataraman, to convey that the commission's secretary-general in Geneva had issued an appeal to the President of India for a reprieve for Kehar Singh. But Prem Kumar, secretary to the President, politely put off the caller: "Rashtrapatiji is sleeping and cannot be disturbed... At any rate, the President can only act on the advice of the council of ministers." The Prime Minister (Rajiv Gandhi) was holidaying with friends.
Kehar Singh's body, along with Satwant's, was hurriedly ~ almost surreptitiously ~ cremated in the jail premises. The whole episode was soon forgotten. There is a lesson to be learnt.
~ Yours, etc., Saran Singh (retired IAS), Kolkata, 17 October.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
http://thestatesman.org/page.news.php?clid...33882&usrsess=1