Editorial

‘Hanging An Indian With No Lawyer’

It doesn’t matter whether they call it judicial killing or extra-judicial killing. To his family Afzal Guru is no more. To the people of Kashmir he is a martyr who went to gallows for a cause. And to the human rights activists across India he is a victim of conspiracy and his hanging will continue to haunt the ‘collective conscience’ of the elite for years to come. The cry for justice remains a silent pouring of helpless anger in the hearts and souls of thousands of Kashmiris who took to the streets in the death valley of Kashmir immediately after Guru’s hanging. Afzal’s death sentence was executed 12 years after the mysterious attack on Indian parliament and just 6 days after his mercy plea was rejected by the President of India.

Before Afzal Guru, Ajmal Kasab’s execution too was done secretly. The seductive and stealthy hanging of Ajmal Kasab in Pune’s Yerwerda prison on November 21, 2012 didn’t raise much hue and cry as in the prevailing surcharged atmosphere even raising questions about the usefulness of capital punishment was considered to be ‘traitorous’, ‘unpatriotic’ and ‘anti-national’. But the situation is totally different today as people from different parts of the country are protesting against the caricature of justice. Afzal Guru was not given the opportunity to seek a judicial review of the decision to reject his mercy petition—a practice that has been followed in such a high-handed manner that they didn’t bother about existing legal procedures by not informing Afzal Guru’s family of his imminent execution. What is more the body was also not returned to the family for last rites and burial, in violation of international standards. He is at permanent rest in Tihar Jail—still a prisoner.

That political expediency tempted the persons in power to execute both Kasab and Afzal is a fact of life. It’s as clear as anything else. Union Home Minister Sushil Sindhe, however, was at pains at press briefings that Guru’s execution was not a political decision. Indications are that the reverse is true.

The saffron brigade has all along been demanding the early hanging of Afzal Guru, while whipping jingoism at opportune moment. And now Congress Party too has joined the race with a view to clipping the wings of its rival—Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), by equally fomenting xenophobia. But Guru’s hanging, rather selective hanging may be counter-productive for both these parties in the next general election. The onus rests on the rulers to convince the world that this was not a selective execution. Guru was not allowed to meet his family before he was hanged and was not allowed a final farewell. Saffron hooligans who celebrated the occasion by distributing sweets and man-handling human rights activists who were protesting against injustice done to Guru in Delhi, represent the fascistic face of Indian democracy. They are the storm-troopers for the rise of authoritarian culture in the polity.

Piecing together all events since Guru’s arrest on 15 December 2001, the conspiracy to attack parliament on 13 December 2001 appears more mysterious than ever before. And it is unlikely that the people will ever know the truth behind the tragedy in which seven members of the security forces including a woman constable were killed, as were the five persons who had carried out the attack. And Afzal was falsely implicated in a case, with no lawyer, no fair trial, finally condemned to death, to satisfy ‘collective conscience’!
The core issue is however, Kashmir. And the agony of Kashmir since the eighties defies description. The people outside the valley of Kashmir have no clear idea about how security forces have transformed a paradise into a hell. The persons in authority in Delhi were in a hurry in executing Afzal as they might not stand the truth. Perhaps the Shindes cannot face the multiple questions related to hanging of an Indian, a Kashmiri youth in his forties with no lawyer. He had no defence in this biggest showpiece of democracy. Strangely, these days in contrast to British times, no liberal lawyer came forward to defend Guru’s case voluntarily and the biased media fed by the lies told by the police time and again, hanged him even before the actual legal proceedings started.

After Guru’s hanging, Kashmir continues to burn. For Afzal Guru the verdict of Kashmir people will last as they are well aware of the reality, the reality of being a Kashmiri in a suffocating atmosphere of repression and absence of democracy. Kashmiri was a conflict zone before Guru’s execution and it will remain so after Guru’s execution. The British rulers perfected the art of secret hanging of revolutionaries and the same British legacy continues unabated.

The execution of Afzal Guru once again raises the very fundamental question of how death penalty is justifiable in a democracy as more and more countries are in favour of abolishing death penalty. Amnesty International opposes it. So do dozens of human rights bodies and civil liberties associations in India. In truth, 140 countries are abolitionist in law or in practice. ‘In 2011, only 21 states in the world executed, meaning that 90 percent of the world was execution-free’. Death Penalty means denying right to life as recognised in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Executing one Afzal Guru won’t stop militancy in Kashmir unless the aspirations of the people of Kashmir are addressed in earnest. This ‘injustice’ will further alienate new generation Kashmiris from the powers that be. With hundreds of Kashmiris languishing in jails, most of them with no lawyer, no hope for justice, it is quite logical that most Kashmiris will not trust what the authorities in Delhi and Srinagar are saying—or not saying.

True to their social-democratic tradition the major segment of the Communist Left in India sided with Congress and BJP in justifying the injustice meted out to Afzal Guru. CPI(M) that exposed its social-fascistic fang in Bengal not very long ago supported the hanging. While CPI(ML) Liberation condemned the execution, the CPI being a typical middle-roader, didn’t issue any statement though its national council member and academic Kamal Mitra Chenoi expressed regret. Voice of dissent seems too feeble to be heard across the length and breath of the country.

Frontier
Vol. 45, No. 33, February 24-Mar 2, 2013

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