Mysorean

Five years ago on this day, the Indian symbol of democracy was attacked by terrorists. Our parliament was under sieze by a group of five terrorists (Arundhati Roy says “six”!). The entire nation watched the well-covered event on television. The session was on inside the parliament and they seemed to be going about their business as not many of them were outside the parliament. If I remember right, the zero-hour was going on.

Our security personnel stood their ground against these terrorists and killed all of them. But not before sacrificing eight lives to prevent the heart of our democracy from being attacked (or God knows what was on their mind!)! The martyrs were soon forgotten after giving them a few notes of paper and one piece of metal (no, that’s not a typo error!) each.

The investigations took place. It was concluded that the mega event was well-planned and excecuted. The main guy who planned the event and managed the back-end was found to be Mr. Mohammed Afzal (bloody traitor!). Quite surprisingly, within 5 years he was caught, booked and convicted by the Indian judiciary.

Then began the drama. J&K politicians threatened that J&K would go up in flames if he (Mohd. Afzal) was hung to death. Did you know of a society called “Society for Protection of Prisoners and detainees”?! Arundhati Roy (for whom I had a little respect till now) and other people got together and said, ”the case is filled with incomplete evidence and that Afzal wasn’t given a fair trial”. Some people went into the most fundamental issue: “Why should we hang someone at all? Who are we to end the life of a person?”.

Arundhati Roy, on the face of it looks like, is making a lot of valuable points. You can check her questions (she has exactly 13 questions since it was 13th December, clearly she isn’t superstitious!) here. You can watch the unedited footage of the attack here, here, here and here. Also, Jawed Naqvi (columnist of “The Dawn”)  in a TV interview with CNN IBN said that the media has considerably swayed public opinion in this case and that’s what has in fact brought Md. Afzal to this state. You can read that interview here.

After all this, I realise that even my opinion is purely based on what the media says. And on deeper analysis, I found that I didn’t have access either to the courts that were hearing Afzal’s case or to his lawyers or the prosecution lawyers. So, I was supposed to watch the television, listen to the radio (more of FM junk nowadays than anything else), read the newspapers and arrive at my own conclusions. Even then, those conclusions will be based on “media” as such! So, what is Mr. Jawed Naqvi talking about?

I believe in my country’s judicial system. It might take its own sweet time in getting things done, but that’s the way the system is. If you want to change it and know how to, then go ahead and do it. But then, please don’t keep shouting till your throats dry up about how “useful” it is. Today, it has convicted Md. Afzal. And what do we do? Instead of welcoming the decision and hanging him to death (I believe that our country’s lawyers would have done the best they could have to produce conclusive evidence for the same) we ask for sympathy for Afzal and clemency and what not! And I guess, our president is waiting for his term to get over so that his successor takes this decision and subsequently face the music himself. Good thinking I must say!  

Afzal has been found guilty by all the courts in the hierarchy leading upto the Supreme Court. The consistency should be respected atleast if not anything else! He has admitted guilt on camera too. His brother assured CNN IBN that he was a terrorist. For me, as a layman, it looks like he is definitely guilty. For every point there might a counter-point and arguments, but then my opinion is that he should be hanged to death. The mistake he has committed is grave enough to deserve the ultimate punishment. And unfortunately, it is not the first time he has been found guilty of betraying his own country!      

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