This refers to the editorial “After a hanging” (February 11). A close and dispassionate look at the Afzal Guru saga makes it clear that he was a sacrificial victim. His hanging followed an unfair trial — a convenient judgment to satisfy the society’s collective conscience, and an expedient rejection of the mercy petition for political ends. Death penalty becomes a judicial lottery when it is decided not so much by the nature of the crime as by factors like the accused’s religious or political beliefs. The hard question is whether he was kept on death row for so long for the politically opportune moment to come. In this light, it is paradoxical that the insistence that Kashmiris are Indian citizens provides them no immunity from the violation of their rights with impunity in “the world’s largest democracy”. The sooner the State realises that the legitimate aspirations of the Kashmiris that spring from a sense of their cultural and historical identity cannot be repressed for long, the better it is for the region’s stability and the avoidance of a nuclear conflagration. Besides, as a great civilisation, India must put the gallows where it belongs — in the museum.
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G David Milton Maruthancode
Letters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:
The Editor, Business Standard
Nehru House, 4 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg
New Delhi 110 002
Fax: (011) 23720201
E-mail: letters@bsmail.in
All letters must have a postal address and telephone number