www.sacw.net - October 4, 2006 > Human Rights
in South Asia (specific focus India):
Preliminary resources
An open letter against Death Penalty to India's President and Prime Minister
by Jagmohan Singh and Anand Patwardhan*
[Published earlier in Hindustan Times, October 3, 2006, with the title 'Revenge isnt Justice' ]
Bombay, 29 September, 2006
To President Abdul Kalam and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,
Dear Sirs,
We are writing to appeal to you to commute the death sentence of
Mohammed
Afzal, the only accused in the Parliament attack case to have received
this sentence. We write just in case what we have to say has not
already occurred to you, or in case you are inclined not to act on your
own natural instincts because you have been persuaded by some more cold
hearted logic.
We wish to argue that our country can honour Mahatma
Gandhi and Shaheed Bhagat Singh by doing away with the death penalty
altogether. There are many valid grounds for this:
1. A civil society should not descend to the status of murderers by preferring revenge over far better forms of justice.
2. All investigations, however meticulous, are subject to human
error. Such errors become irreversible in case the death penalty is
imposed. All over the world, there have been cases of executed people
being proved innocent after their death.
3. In a country like ours, where there is a huge gap between the
privileged and the dispossessed, the death penalty becomes the final
method for implementing class injustice. A cursory glance at the list
of all those executed in our country will reveal that almost all of
them were poor. The rich are rarely found guilty and even if they are,
they are rarely executed.
4. There is no international evidence to suggest that the death penalty is a
deterrent to violent and heinous crime. Countries like Britain that did
away with the death penalty did not see a rise in such crimes while
countries like the US, which continue to impose the penalty, show no
decline.
Moving from the general to the particular, our argument is not that
Mohammed Afzal is likely to be innocent. And we are not appealing for a
pardon, but for the commutation of the death penalty imposed upon him.
Such a bold decision may or may not change Afzal’s heart, but it
is likely to send a positive signal to the world.
If Afzal is a terrorist today, he was surely not born one. And he need
not die one. Circumstances made him what he is. And circumstances may
change him. The death penalty will change no one. Far from being a
deterrent, martyrdom, as some will surely perceive his death, can only
achieve the opposite effect. To recall a relevant example, in
comparison to today, the Kashmir Valley was virtually peaceful prior to
the judicial execution of Maqbool Butt in 1984.
The meaningful dialogue for peace that you have initiated should not be
abruptly derailed by a mechanical approach to law and order. We appeal
to you to halt the cycle of revenge that has been unleashed in our
country and elsewhere in the world by making a bold statement that
India wishes to tread the path of humanity, not perpetuate the path of
violence.
*
Jagmohan Singh is the nephew of Bhagat Singh. Anand Patwardhan is a documentary filmmaker
Return to
South Asia Citizens Web