How Kasab attacked the very foundations of India itself!

Many Indians, and even foreigners were shocked at seeing the events of 26/11/2008 unfold. 10 Pakistani nationals, trained to be terrorists by Lashkar-e-Taiba group, attacked the financial capital of India. They wreaked havoc in Mumbai over the next 3 days. Many people died in one of the worst incidents of urban violence in this century. This was an act of war!

Unfortunately or fortunately (depending on your perspective), one young boy failed in his mission. He was caught alive by the police. The policeman who caught him and didn't let go of him, was shot several times by Ajmal Amir Kasab, and was martyred!

Kasab's capture was the lone achievement of the Indian security forces, who were otherwise proven to have ridiculously failed in protecting citizens' lives.

Of course what Kasab did was a crime against humanity, and there is no attempt on my part to downplay the significance of his crimes. I am however, trying to look at his crimes from another angle, in this blog post. I am looking at the aspect which has been ignored in this debate. I am concerned about the impact of his crimes on the Indian psyche - in particular, on the question of the death penalty.

One must congratulate the successive Indian Governments and appreciate the fact that they have shown incredible restraint on the use of the death penalty. As per official statistics, India has executed only 55 people since 1947. That is disputed because other documents obtained through the Right to Information Act seem to suggest that over a thousand people were put to death in the decade 1951-60 itself. The Central Government is not very sure of the correct figures, since records from the decades immediately after independence were not very well preserved, and not all cases made it up to the higher courts.

But nobody can dispute the fact that despite enjoying overwhelming support, death penalty has been on a decline in India. Perhaps deliberately, Indian bureaucracy has shown reluctance in approving executions and even appointing executioners. As of now, this country of over 1 billion people does not have even a single hangman, and has executed only 1 person in the past 15 years. This happens to be the lowest execution rate from amongst the countries which retain capital punishment. Killers of Rajiv Gandhi (1991) and attackers of Parliament (2001) remain on death row, and are unlikely to be executed any time soon.

I believe that there are 2 reasons why India is drifting away from capital punishment - one, is the global movement spearheaded by NGOs like Amnesty. Second reason, in my opinion, is the emphasis of the Indian origin religions (such as Hinduism and Buddhism) on forgiveness.

There is never enough appreciation of the fact that Hinduism prescribes neither death by stoning, nor death by burning at the stake, or hanging, drawing and quartering. Death penalty has been practiced by Hindu kings, but it was rarely seen as an act of revenge. While the Islamic jurisprudence is strict on offenders (murderers can only be spared the death penalty if their victims' family agrees), Hinduism places more importance on reforming the sinner. Hindu mythology talks about the famous story of Sage Valmiki who was once a dreaded dacoit and murderer. One day when Sage Narad visited Valiya Bheel (as Valmiki was known then) on the orders of his father Lord Brahma, he was able to convince him to shed the path of sin and turn to righteousness. Quite similarly, Lord Gautam Buddha visited Angulimaal (the dreaded dacoit-murderer who would cut off 1 finger from each of his victims, and then make a necklace out of it), reformed him and then changed his life forever. [1]

The Indian Government last tested the waters on the issue of death penalty in 2004, when the then President Abdul Kalam approved the hanging of Dhanonjoy Chatterjee. Dhanonjoy was convicted of rape and murder of a 14 year old girl, and since the Supreme Court believed the murder was quite brutal, it awarded him the sentence of death. I believe the only reason why Dhanonjoy's hanging was allowed, was because the government wanted to determine if it could execute the more dreaded terrorists. The reaction to the execution was on the whole positive, but the voices of dissent were far too many to be ignored. Many people gathered outside the jail to oppose the execution, and multiple ambulances and police vans were parked outside the home of Dhanonjoy's family 24X7 as the nervous government wanted to avoid any negative reaction (particularly since suicide had been threatened). [2][3]

After 2004, for a while it seemed as if the country was moving steadfastly against capital punishment. The UPA Government had even refused to expedite the hanging of the Parliament attack convict Mohd. Afzal Guru (presumably, to avoid negative reaction in Kashmir). The Supreme Court has been continuously narrowing the interpretation of "rarest of the rare" cases, where it is legal for a convict to be put to death. The deliberate bureaucratic apathy to the death row convicts has meant that most have been effectively commuted to life. And even the public opinion was changing, and moving against the death penalty.

However, all that changed with the Mumbai attacks.

The sheer brutality of Mumbai attacks has convinced millions of Indians, that while it may be acceptable for ordinary criminals to receive the life sentence instead of death for crimes such as murder, on the other hand terrorists are to be treated on a different footing. Not only should they have an option of receiving the highest punishment, but also must have their entire legal process (appeals) and bureaucratic process (mercy pleas) expedited. It has turned the tide so strongly in favour of the death penalty in India, that any enlightened future government would not find it easy to do away with this provision of criminal law. The attacks which were reported live on television, shook public conscience to such an extent, that people find it okay to even think that Kasab should have been stripped of his normal civil rights of free and fair trial, right to legal representation, right to appeals and right to mercy pleas, and that he should have been hanged immediately after the attacks. Many want him to be stoned to death, killed with a bullet dipped in pig's blood, hanged publicly at the Gateway of India monument, or tortured to death.

It seems that Mumbai attacks has let loose the animal out off us. It makes us look like our country is full of ignorant bigots. We are giving the impression to the world that we are an uncivilized culture, unworthy of being called a liberal democracy. It highlights our ugly, revengeful, blood thirsty face, which is way too different from the compassionate, forgiving values that our ancient ancestors and also our father of the Nation taught us.

It is for this reason, that I loathe Kasab even more.