Waiting to Die...

The sheer laziness of our politicians has again created another unnecessary problem. The whole debate on whether to hang the killers of Rajiv Gandhi has risen only because the government and the judiciary alike have dragged their feet on the issue for so long now. The three people on death row have been in jail now for 20 years. The President of India has taken a little over 11 years to decide on the clemency petition filed by the convicted assassins. It is absolutely shameful that we treat matters of life and death with such disdain and lack of compassion. Our governments and judiciary are notoriously slow. They take forever to decide on issues of grave importance.

The three convicted men were sentenced to be hanged on September 9th, 2011. They filed a petition in the Madras High Court and the decision to hang them has been postponed by another 8 weeks. Now these three men wait for another two months not knowing whether they are to live or not. We should be ashamed of ourselves as a country; treating human life so cheaply. It does not matter what their crime is, this is absolutely shameful on our part, to make these people and their families go through such agony for so long. Somebody tweeted a question yesterday, asking whether we would consider not hanging Kasab (26/11 terrorist) in case such delays were to be repeated during his hearing. The answer should be unequivocally YES. If the government and judiciary fail in their duties, we have no right to impose our inhuman medieval justice system on anybody. To further answer the query with another question, what if an ordinary citizen on death row was to be hanged after 20 years, would we not sympathize with him/her?

While we are faced with moral dilemmas, our politicians in true fashion have gone ahead trying to maximize their self-serving goals. People like Mr. Vaiko and Karunanidhi (once a suspect in the assassination of Mr. Gandhi) have sided with the convicts driven purely by their narrow animal like regionalistic view. Some of these people have gone to the extent of calling the investigation a sham and claiming innocence on behalf of the convicted people. They need to be reminded that these people have been convicted by various courts, they have had their mercy petitions rejected by the President of the country. Indulging in such anti-national activities and in a clear case of contempt of the courts' orders is downright criminal. If they are truly concerned about the well being of these three men, they need to show more sympathy and not create a tamasha of the whole situation.

Once the law and the punishment have been decided the process should be the same for every convict. However, in light of the breakdown of our judicial system, as is in the case Rajiv Gandhi's killers, the convicts need to be sympathized with. If the Kasab case takes 20 years or any amount of time on account of delays because of our rotten systems, the punishment awarded should take that delay into account.

Such is the rot in our system that we potentially face convicted terrorists, rapists, murderers walk free on account of the delays in established processes.We need to earnestly & urgently fix our judicial processes. It is equally important not to value human life with such disrespect. Especially in cases where there are lives at stake. We need to show more compassion as a country, as a people, for convicts on death row, for convicts who have out-served their sentences while still waiting for a hearing.

We should commute the sentences of the three convicted men. They have been waiting to die for the last 20 years. We should save them any more agony. And apologise to them.