KALAM &
MEMON
(A saga of honor and hatred
showered upon two individuals within a nation that still exits with the
religious parameters of stereotypes, radical views and modern outlook of a
mature developing country)
“main kiske haath pe apna lahoo
talash karoon
tamaam shehar ne pehne hue hain dastaane”
tamaam shehar ne pehne hue hain dastaane”
(On whose hands should I look
for my blood?
When the whole city is wearing gloves)
Ahmad Faraz ,1931-2007
The financer of one of the worst attack on a nation and the
missile man of the same country i.e. India passed away few days apart. One was
the people's president, the architect of our nuclear program, and the other was
a 'blood-thirsty terrorist' who financed his brother's sinister plans to bomb
Mumbai. One will be truly missed and the later sure deserved to die. This
entire episode of wrath, anger gratitude and frustration puts forward one
important fact once again. The idea of being an Indian and the idea of being a Muslim
somehow has been lost in the transition of radical beliefs and religious outlook.
In their death, both Yakub and Kalam exposed us to the hunger
for macabre. The former one we treated as martyr and the later as a conspirator
a traitor. We showed the utmost respect to Kalam but we not only shamed Yakub
but also his family. Yakub s family member while carrying his dead body in the
flight not only faced humiliation from the fellow passengers but also after the
insult they wanted to take selfies with his coffin .The constant debate between
Team Hanging and Team Mercy . Although we captured Yakub Memon, the man behind
the blast i.e. Tiger Memon still remains out of our reach .
We all lined up for the contest on either side of lines dividing
pent up frustration, biases, fears, misplaced notions of patriotism and justice;
all the Freudian concepts imagined . This proved that we are the ultimate
suckers of death as ultimate entertainment in TV. We – the entire nation became
the participant, we observed every minute and every moment of the hanging .Ultimately,
Yakub Memon’s death just became a status.
Opposition to the death penalty is founded on the belief that
retribution is unworthy; it should be abolished because we are a civilized
society. These assertions - they are not arguments - appeal to what Aristotle
called the pathos, or emotions, of the public. Mercy, forgiveness, civilization...such
words encompass lovely ideals that appeal to our vanity as much as our hopes
when it costs us nothing. Yet there is nothing qualitatively superior to such
assertions compared to saying that as a civilized society, we cannot tolerate
those who commit exceptionally brutal or gruesome acts. Retribution is very
much a part of human nature and laws that suppress such strong evolutionary
inclinations just beg to be violated. Even a brief survey of world literature
and history would powerfully underscore the part revenge plays in human
affairs. Recent mob attacks on some rape-accused in India, even in jail,
reiterate this lesson even More than 160 countries have abolished the death
penalty in law or in practice and 98 of those have abolished it altogether.
India is one of the 58 countries which still hands out the death penalty,
according to a UN reports.
The international voices against Yakub Memon's hanging was led
by UN secretary general Ban ki moon who emphasized his stand against death
sentences.
New York-based NGO Human Rights Watch urged India to order a
ban, saying there is no evidence that the "cruel" form of punishment
acts as a deterrent.
"Why does India cling to capital punishment? Perhaps the
government is afraid to be seen as soft in the face of horrific terrorist
attacks or other crimes like the 2013 gang rape of a student in New Delhi. But
the often professed goals for capital punishment – deterrence, reformation, or
justice – hardly hold up to scrutiny," said Jayshree Bajoria, a researcher
with the organization.
Eminent jurists too joined the debate. While former attorney
general (AG) Soli Sorabjee called for a ban on capital punishment, present AG
Mukul Rohatgi said it wasn't time yet.
Writers and opinion makers who spoke out against the noose
mainly said the state should not be a party to taking precious lives and that
death is never a deterrent for terrorists.
A large section of the media stuck to the argument that it was
time for India to rethink the capital punishment laws.
"India's use of the death penalty demeans the most
cherished idea on which our republic rests, the idea of justice," wrote
the Indian Express in its editorial.
The Hindu's editorial said, “A truly lasting solution to the
moral dilemma that each instance of capital punishment poses will be to abolish
it altogether and replace it with a sentence of imprisonment for the rest of
the convict's life."
Others like R Jagannathan, Editor-in-chief at Firstpost argued
in favour of retaining the maximum penalty saying: "We need the death
penalty for our own reasons at this stage in our development as a civilised
society."
Courts in India had awarded death penalty to 2,052 convicts
between 1998 and 2013, according to the National Crime Records Bureau, but only
three were executed.
The three executions were those of Dhananjoy Chatterjee in 2004,
who was convicted for the rape and murder of a teenage girl in Kolkata, Ajmal
Kasab for the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks and Afzal Guru for the 2001 Parliament
attack. Further.
Yakub Memon has been hanged and is no more. But the issues
around his case will reverberate in our consciousness for a long time. And the
last word is yet to be said.
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