Letters to BS: We must examine why people want 'an eye for an eye'?

This refers to “The legitimisation of vengeance” by Shyam Saran (December 11), wherein the writer calls the public jubilation over the encounter killings as “vulgar outpouring of accolades for the Hyderabad police”. It would be prudent to examine why the public is reacting this way. Legal delays in India are well known. Criminals sentenced to death are always given a long rope, to file review and mercy petitions, with their sentences frequently getting commuted to life imprisonment, following the dictum “better 10 guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer”.
 
The Nirbhaya case is a classic example of the same where one of the convicts filed a review petition on December 10. The public reaction is to be viewed in this context, barbaric though it may seem to be.
 
V Jayaraman, Chennai 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