I started this piece on the same day Kasab was hanged. After this Afzal Guru was hanged. Today Mr. Yakub Memon is going to be executed. My views on the death penalty remain the same. I write this because I strongly believe that the solution to any
problem of the society anywhere on this planet has to come from much
more fundamental level rather than seeking answers at the superficial
levels and this act of death penalty is just one of the very shallow measures.
I just can not feel good or neutral because Ajmal Kasab, 25 year old, a Muslim by religion, Pakistani by nationality, one of the most disliked/hated human in India, who killed many innocent people on 26th November, 2008 in Mumbai got hanged today. Does it serve any purpose? Does it make life better in anyway for those who were killed, those who survived, those who would be living with the nightmare throughout or will it act as a deterrent ? I think the answer to all these questions is no. I request you to keep your judgement in check for a few minutes or rather kindly let me have my opinion and ignore it in case you do not agree. Let us all learn to agree to disagree, life will be more peaceful!
A tragedy like this demands the following.
1.)Taking care of the families of who got killed, specially, the forces(police, army, guards ) who laid down their lives knowing fully well that they may not come out of it.
2.) A serious introspection why this happened and how to stop it from happening again.
This needs to be done not only by the government or state, we all at our individual level have to contribute to it. I do not know how well these two important requirements are taken care of by our state or by us. I doubt if anything changed in your or my life after this? Whenever we are under the grip of fear of any such thing happening to us, we cry hoarse what should be done by the government/state/bureaucracy etc..
Hanging Kasab was one of the things which is thought of as a step in the right direction. How does this help in achieving the above two issues is something which needs to be taken very seriously.
What did the families got? A few days attention from the media, some award from the state. But does that take away/lessen the pain they would be undergoing? I am sure again for a day or so this stupid question would be asked to the families- How do you feel now? Shame on all of us, who ask, who expect such questions to be answered, who listen and get a feel good factor.
Kasab, a young boy from a poor background, from Pakistan(can not ignore this factor given the fact how hostile, unfortunately, the two brother nations, feel about each other), brainwashed executed this horrible act. This is not any kind of justification for what he did but what beats me is the following.
Such an act is unacceptable from Kasab but what about the rich, people with all means, planning in cold blood the killing of hundreds of innocent people, just for the sake of power /greed from the comforts of their drawing rooms? What about the perpetrators of 1984 riots in Delhi, 1992 riots in Mumbai, 2002 Gujrat riots and many other such incidents? What stops us to ask for death sentence for all those responsible for these heinous crimes, where men, women and children were killed brutally ? But in many of these cases accountability is still to be fixed. And we, the public hardly care! Why it is okay with you and me to ignore/forget these incidents? Just because in these cases we do not have a clear, defined enemy to shout against ! It beats me why ? How can it be more painful when the life is taken by a so called enemy than a so called friend? Whatever the reason might be but it is utter hypocrisy on our parts to look at the similar incidents or rather with different order of heinousness(according to me the latter one is much more grievous), with two different looking glasses. It would be a gross mistake to ignore the circumstances, events that led to such monstrous planned crimes !
My point is what Ajmal did along with nine others on 26/11 in Mumbai is something which is unacceptable and beyond any kind of justification from any one. What happened on that night, when almost 200 people lost their lives, Mumbai was under siege of terror and the entire nation watched this horrific ongoing for almost three days, requires much more to be done than hanging the lone surviving attacker and rejoicing it. Kasab in this case was a miniscule pawn in the hands of some people with completely distorted understanding of life. The incidents like this are external manifestation of a metastatic stage of deep rooted cancer of hatred, mistrust and greed and happen all over the world. And it does require urgency in the treatment at the root level ! I am certainly not in favour of hanging those responsible for the riots or other crimes also but we do require earnest efforts to change the mindset of such people suffering from extreme case of selfishness and greed.
Taking life of someone in any way according to me does not serve any purpose to anyone ! If it does appease to some psychologically and to some gives satisfaction of justice being done in exchange to the wrongs done to them, then there is something gone wrong very seriously with our judgements, our attitudes, as a race , which should be a serious concern for you and me. As Mahatama Gandhi put it very simply "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind".
I just can not feel good or neutral because Ajmal Kasab, 25 year old, a Muslim by religion, Pakistani by nationality, one of the most disliked/hated human in India, who killed many innocent people on 26th November, 2008 in Mumbai got hanged today. Does it serve any purpose? Does it make life better in anyway for those who were killed, those who survived, those who would be living with the nightmare throughout or will it act as a deterrent ? I think the answer to all these questions is no. I request you to keep your judgement in check for a few minutes or rather kindly let me have my opinion and ignore it in case you do not agree. Let us all learn to agree to disagree, life will be more peaceful!
A tragedy like this demands the following.
1.)Taking care of the families of who got killed, specially, the forces(police, army, guards ) who laid down their lives knowing fully well that they may not come out of it.
2.) A serious introspection why this happened and how to stop it from happening again.
This needs to be done not only by the government or state, we all at our individual level have to contribute to it. I do not know how well these two important requirements are taken care of by our state or by us. I doubt if anything changed in your or my life after this? Whenever we are under the grip of fear of any such thing happening to us, we cry hoarse what should be done by the government/state/bureaucracy etc..
Hanging Kasab was one of the things which is thought of as a step in the right direction. How does this help in achieving the above two issues is something which needs to be taken very seriously.
What did the families got? A few days attention from the media, some award from the state. But does that take away/lessen the pain they would be undergoing? I am sure again for a day or so this stupid question would be asked to the families- How do you feel now? Shame on all of us, who ask, who expect such questions to be answered, who listen and get a feel good factor.
Kasab, a young boy from a poor background, from Pakistan(can not ignore this factor given the fact how hostile, unfortunately, the two brother nations, feel about each other), brainwashed executed this horrible act. This is not any kind of justification for what he did but what beats me is the following.
Such an act is unacceptable from Kasab but what about the rich, people with all means, planning in cold blood the killing of hundreds of innocent people, just for the sake of power /greed from the comforts of their drawing rooms? What about the perpetrators of 1984 riots in Delhi, 1992 riots in Mumbai, 2002 Gujrat riots and many other such incidents? What stops us to ask for death sentence for all those responsible for these heinous crimes, where men, women and children were killed brutally ? But in many of these cases accountability is still to be fixed. And we, the public hardly care! Why it is okay with you and me to ignore/forget these incidents? Just because in these cases we do not have a clear, defined enemy to shout against ! It beats me why ? How can it be more painful when the life is taken by a so called enemy than a so called friend? Whatever the reason might be but it is utter hypocrisy on our parts to look at the similar incidents or rather with different order of heinousness(according to me the latter one is much more grievous), with two different looking glasses. It would be a gross mistake to ignore the circumstances, events that led to such monstrous planned crimes !
My point is what Ajmal did along with nine others on 26/11 in Mumbai is something which is unacceptable and beyond any kind of justification from any one. What happened on that night, when almost 200 people lost their lives, Mumbai was under siege of terror and the entire nation watched this horrific ongoing for almost three days, requires much more to be done than hanging the lone surviving attacker and rejoicing it. Kasab in this case was a miniscule pawn in the hands of some people with completely distorted understanding of life. The incidents like this are external manifestation of a metastatic stage of deep rooted cancer of hatred, mistrust and greed and happen all over the world. And it does require urgency in the treatment at the root level ! I am certainly not in favour of hanging those responsible for the riots or other crimes also but we do require earnest efforts to change the mindset of such people suffering from extreme case of selfishness and greed.
Taking life of someone in any way according to me does not serve any purpose to anyone ! If it does appease to some psychologically and to some gives satisfaction of justice being done in exchange to the wrongs done to them, then there is something gone wrong very seriously with our judgements, our attitudes, as a race , which should be a serious concern for you and me. As Mahatama Gandhi put it very simply "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind".
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