Letters

‘No’ to Death Penalty
Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR) strongly deplores the hanging of Afzal Guru, convicted in the 2001 Parliament attack case, under a shroud of secrecy in Tihar Jail on Saturday (February 9) morning. The execution follows closely that of Ajmal Kasab in November. In handing down these barbarous punishments in a row, the Indian state has proved that it has completely moved away from ideals of Gandhi, Tagore and other illustrious thinkers of this nation and decided to play the global hangman to please the hawks both here and abroad. It is utterly unfortunate that neither the apex court nor President Pranab Mukherjee chose to exercise their discretion to set aside the death sentence. The action is anachronous with human rights jurisprudence that believes in the abolition of the death penalty for enhancement of human dignity and progressive development of human rights.

The Ahmedabad special court in the Naroda Patiya massacre case has refrained from pronouncing the death sentence noting that it is the trend worldwide to move away from capital punishment and 140 countries have already abolished it. The UN Secretary-General recently mentioned that India was one of the countries that retained the death penalty and voted against General Assembly resolution 65/206 on moratorium on the use of the death penalty.

Fourteen former Supreme Court and high court judges have written to President Pranab Mukherjee asking him to commute the death sentences of 13 convicts. Their letter mentions that the Supreme Court has admitted that two "wrongly sentenced prisoners"—Ravji Rao and Surja Ram—had been executed on 4 May 1996 and 7 April 1997 respectively.

Yet, Afzal Guru's hanging once again indicates that the juridical institutions could not rise above the dominant body of political opinion and applied the 'death for death' principle.

India has no need to be worried of conspirators and can, with firm faith in herself, accept ICCPR-OP 2 to abolish death penalty.

Dhiraj Sengupta,
General Secretary, APDR


Perverted Vengeance
No lies or distortions can cover up the wicked deeds of the military action carried out by the defence forces of Sri Lanka in the name of "humanitarian war" during the final stages of the war in 2009. Information and evidence about them have already been released by International democratic and human rights organisations. As a continuation of such information, the British TV Channel, Channel-4 had recently released photographs relating to the killing of the 12-year-old son of Prabhakaran. The killing of a child of tender age as an act of revenge has shocked every parent who saw the photographs. Although the photographs have been released belatedly, they have brought out the cruelties of the war and the violation of the rules of combat. The New-Democratic Marxist-Leninist Party (NDMLP) strongly condemns these acts.

Many thousands of Tamils were killed in the coastal areas of Mullaitheevu in the final days of the cruel war carried forward by the Mahinda Chinthana government. Those killed included the old, the sickly, women, children, youth and infants. Prabhakaran's twelve-year-old son Balachandran was killed as one such victim. This wicked act was an inhuman and immoral act of murder carried out as an act of perverted vengeance. It is in breach of national laws and accepted international norms for the conduct of war.

This event makes people wonder how many more tender buds like Balachandran would have fallen prey during the final stages of the war to the guns of this regime, which has vociferously claimed at home and abroad that it was acting against the recruitment of children as soldiers and to protect the rights of children. Thus the government should solely accept responsibility and answer charges relating to this. But spokespersons for the government and the Defence Secretary are simply denying everything. It will be in vain to expect that the UN, its Human Rights Council, the US, the West and India will provide justice for the human rights breaches of the final stages of the war or for the murder of the child, Balachandran. It was these countries that were responsible for the murder of children of tender age like Balachandran. Hence, the only way to win justice for these murders is to make the Sinhalese people, who have been distracted by the government, to think politically and question the government. The same fate could befall the Sinhalese youth tomorrow.

S K Senthire,
General Secretary, NDMLP


‘Secular Pakistan’
The Forum for Secular Pakistan strongly condemns the attack on the Christian Community of Joseph Colony, Badami Bagh Lahore, in which 178 houses of the low-income community, as well as shops and 3 churches were looted and burnt to ashes, the Pastor was attacked and the father of Savan Masih, the youth falsely accused of blasphemy, was beaten up and subsequently arrested.

The Forum is outraged at the continuing misuse, abuse and exploitation of Section 295-B&C (the "blasphemy law") for vested interests, personal vendettas and political gains. The Forum demands that this mala fide law and its procedures be immediately revised to prevent any further false charges, killing, looting, burning and orchestrated attacks.

Hardly a week passes by that a Quetta Hazara Shia Carnage or Abbas Town Carnage occurs, targeting vulnerable Muslim and non-Muslim minorities, particularly Hazaras, Shias, Barelvis, Sufis, Ahmadis, Christians and Hindus. Violating the Constitutional safeguards and guarantees, the State has failed to provide protection of life, liberty, honour, dignity, property and possessions. It has now reached a stage where the very existence of Pakistan is at stake.

Believing that Pakistanis are witnessing the bitter fruit of decades of State and external sponsorship and promotion of the Jihadi groups, as well as the more recent appeasement policy towards the Taliban groups, the Forum calls for an immediate separation of religion from politics; a clear federal and provincial policy statement regarding concrete measures to protect vulnerable minorities; a substantive change in school curricula to remove all hate materials; and an immediate revision of the law and section 295-B&C to prevent further exploitation falsely in the name of religion.

In their last few days, the federal and provincial governments must do nothing less than this, if they are to face voters in the general elections soon.

Javed Qazi
General Secretary
Forum for Secular Pakistan


It’s Hairspliting
Paresh Chattopadhyay and Hiren Gohain indulged in hairsplitting. They are great scholars, great historians. But people are living in the 21st century and Marx died in 1883. Hasn't the world changed a lot since then? Even if Marx scholars can present the authentic Marx freed from all the distortions perpetrated by Lenin and other Marxists, what do progressive gain? Imitating Marx I would like to say: Historians are restoring the authentic Marx. The point however is to change the world of the 21st century.
Saral Sarkar


In defence of Mao Tse Tung Thought
I am very sorry to state that 'FRONTIER' of March 3-9 failed to aknowledge the essay of the late Harbhajan Singh Sohi in the article 'In Defence of Mao Tse Tung Thought.'I had clearly mentioned that in my work sent, from the 3rd paragraph it was a compilation of HBS 's writing 'Hold Aloft the Invincible Banner of Mao Tse Tung Thought' (statement published in the Proletarian Path,Organ of the cc(provisional) of the UCCRI(ML),March 1980 in commemoration of Mao Tse Tung's 86th birthday (written by HBS).

The first 2 paragraphs of the article were my original writings but from the 3rd it was HBS's work which I had compiled but aknolwedged with a title. I wished to give an example of the strength of Mao's thought through HBS's contribution. I want readers to note this without fail and confirm that I had aknolwedeged HBS's name in what I had originally sent.
Harsh Thakor

Frontier
Vol. 45, No. 38, Mar31-Apr 6, 2013

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