New Delhi, August 17: President Pratibha Patil should in all probability condone the death sentence awarded to Afzal Guru. However, good senses prevailing ultimately seems to be a rather highly optimistic expectation.
The heightened sentiment of patriotism infused by a terrorist attack on the symbol of democracy, the Parliament, is against showing any mercy to a convict. All the legal options have been exhausted, yet many broader questions remain. Afzal’s hanging may satisfy the limited need of dispensing justice; but it will further precipitate the already confused and bloody situation in Kashmir.
Will the death penalty help to prevent conflict or lead to more bloodshed? Moreover will this lead to reconciliation or broaden the existing chasm between Kashmir and rest of the country? These are some of the prickly questions haunting the common man in Kashmir.
Well, judges are always faced with the most difficult quandary. They have to discharge dual tasks: uphold territorial integrity and also dispense justice. In the present-day world of nation states, what’s the first priority: dispensing justice on merit or meeting the exigencies of national integrity?
Obviously driven by the sentiment of patriotism even an otherwise upright judge may proclaim that the integrity of the state comes first. In this backdrop, the concept of absolute justice seems to be a lofty ideal; dispensation of justice is conditioned rather constrained by the need to uphold the integrity of a nation state. Patriotism necessarily is not a logical or a rational feeling, that’s the reason why it’s often described that “patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel”.
All the wars fought, are not ‘just wars’. Most times, wars have been waged for dominance driven by lust of power. Patriotism is invoked to justify all these horrible wars. That’s the reason why a single act of violence can be interpreted differently; this fits the classic example of ‘your terrorist is my freedom fighter’. An act of meting justice in Delhi can easily be construed as act of vengeance in Srinagar.
Obscuring the reality is of no use, perceptions differ in Kashmir. The murder of an innocent in any circumstances is an unpardonable act. Killing of an innocent has to be punished, otherwise our societies will turn out to be abode of bloodletting and vengeance driven lunatics. In case Afzal has committed the murder of innocents, he deserves no mercy. No sane person can defend the indefensible. But the highest court of the country too is not fully convinced. The “evidence against Afzal was only circumstantial, and that there was no evidence that he belonged to any terrorist group or organisation”, declared the Supreme Court.
Yet the court confirmed his death sentence citing the parliament attack case as “one of the rarest of rare cases warranting imposition of capital punishment”. It may sound to be blasphemous; Afzal may not be punished necessarily for carrying out a murder but for being allegedly involved in a conspiracy to attack the parliament, implying sovereignty of the state.
Invoking the sovereignty clause to punish Afzal may be legally fully tenable; it transforms Afzal’s status in Kashmir from that of an ordinary killer to a freedom fighter. By hanging Afzal, the separatist movement of Kashmir will be rewarded with a martyr of a cause.
Kashmir wherein thousands of young ones have already died while chasing a seemingly impossible dream of Azadi, the hallowed status of Afzal will attract more to the deadly path.
Muhammad Yasin Guru, the cousin of Afzal Guru, is reported to have said, “No court could establish that Afzal was directly involved in the case… If the collective conscience of the Indian nation will be satisfied by hanging an innocent man, then Afzal should be hanged.” Afzal being punished for patriotic reasons is not the understanding of just Afzal’s family, the whole of Kashmir seems to be rallying around this viewpoint.
By showing mercy to Afzal, the mayhem of violence in Kashmir will not come to an end. But hanging of Afzal will surely provide impetuous to the dying violent campaign that so far has consumed tens of thousands of innocent lives. The courts have carried out their task, may be dutifully. But let the president of the country rise above the narrow patriotic sentiments and pardon Afzal Guru. Mercy to Afzal may help to unleash a process of reconciliation.
Preventing bloodshed and striving to build peace may ultimately prove to be more patriotic than sending Afzal Guru to the gallows.
–Agencies