Shades of Gray

It upsets me to see the kind of support a terrorist is enjoying in our country. Imagine the Chief Minister of a state asking the President to go easy on a convict. And what convict? One who helped execute a terror attack on the Parliament, the symbol of our democracy. But this is precisely what J&K CM did.

However the worse was still to come. In a brazen effort to achieve greatness, the nephew of Shaheed Bhagat Singh wrote an open letter to the President asking him to grant clemency to Mohd. Afzal Guru, the man who helped the terrorists execute an attack on the Parliament on December 13, 2001 – a daring act in which seven people(5 policemen, 1 parliament security guard and a gardener) lost their lives.

Jagmohan Singh wrote that a civil society must not seek revenge by hanging the perpetrators of crimes against the citizenry. Moreover, the system must allow for the fact that Afzal may not be guilty at all since no investigation is guaranteed to be free of error. The other point he raised and this is something that is supported by a lot of people and bloggers is that a death penalty has not been proved to be a deterrent to vicious and heinous crimes.

Let us take these points one by one. No investigation or judgment is free from a possibility of error. Does this mean that we stop punishing criminals? Won’t it be better to shut down courts instead? After all, whether it is death or imprisonment, if it’s a wrong judgment, it is injustice. Period.

It is true that capital punishment is no deterrent and a civic society must not resort to revenge. But punishment is different from revenge. It is revenge only for those who actually support the culprit. While executing Afzal may not prevent future terror attacks, what will keeping him alive achieve? Actually, it will achieve two things:

• Contrary to the popular logic, it will not effect a change of heart. Since Afzal himself has refused to apply for clemency, it shows he is not one who can be reformed. He is a true to the core jehadi who has no regrets for what he did. Letting Afzal go will only set an example for terrorists who will then come at us harder than ever before.

• The other thing that clemency will achieve is that it will cause a lot of heartburn for kins and kiths of those who lost their family members during the parliament attack. They might get turned against the system. Hence a Presidential pardon will not curb terrorism but sow seeds of future homegrown terrorism.

If Afzal is granted a reprieve, how will justice be done to the families of those who lost their near and dear ones defending the parliament? While killing Afzal may not bring those heroes back, still should we treat their martyrdom so cheaply? Such an action will demotivate the Security forces. Moreover, from an economic point of view, why should the citizens pay for Afzal’s upkeep while he is serving his sentence in jail? I pay taxes so that I get benefits in return; not for the Government to feed someone who will act against me the day he is out from jail.

The support Afzal is getting in Kashmir is obviously because he is a kashmiri himself. But letting him go free will set a bad example for the rest of the country. Life imprisonment will only show Indians how the law and political set-up behaves differently when it comes to kashmiris. This will not allow kashmiris to join the mainstream. All this talk about execution of Afzal leading to his attaining the status of a martyr is crap. And even if it is true, it is a risk India will have to take. Because whether its death or life imprisonment for Afzal, the ground-reality is not going to change for either kashmiris or for the Islamic terrorists. If kashmiris want a new destiny for themselves, they have to decide whether they want to do so by staying with the rest of India or going against it. A criminal is a criminal – whether he is a North Indian or a South Indian or a kashmiri. There cannot be two yardsticks for justice. The argument that Afzal Guru did not pull the trigger is fallacious. Kehar Singh was executed for killing Indira Gandhi even though it was not he who pulled the trigger.

If one follows Jagmohan Singh’s philosophy, then we can forget about justice for Jessica Lall, Priyadarshini Mattoo and Nitish Katara. Because according to his logic, the killers may change once mercy is shown towards them. Is he so naïve to understand that once nabbed, every criminal pretends to show remorse? Consider one fallout of Singh’s logic: if Afzal Guru must get only a life term for taking so many lives, a rapist will surely get less than 14 years. So, after a few years, the rapist will continue with his life in a normal manner. But spare a thought for the victim who would suffer the scars of this heinous crime for her entire life? While a death penalty for the culprit will not change her life, how will she feel when she sees the offender living a normal life? Imagine the hell Nitish Katara’s mother will go through if she has to live with the realization that while her son died an unnatural death, his killer is alive and in fact, she is the one who is paying taxes for his upkeep.

India has a long history of forgiveness. Prithviraj Chauhan defeated Mohammed Gauri seventeen times and forgave him each time. But after the only battle Gauri won, he ordered Prithviraj’s blinding. Forgiveness is a good virtue but it may not be the best policy always.

These are the reasons why India should set an example for the terrorists. If you mess with the Indian state, you will not be spared. Moreover, the law should mandate capital punishment for other crimes wherein the criminals have displayed intense brutality and lack of remorse and also in cases, where the crime has left an indelible scar on the victim. It may not prevent crimes but do we have any need for such barbarians in our society?