Collective Conscience of the Nation?
Collective conscience of the nation–my foot! Look at the picture above of Shiv Sena goons. Nationalism as a murderous mob mentality is more like it.
Afzal Guru has been accused of helping terrorists in the attack on the Indian Parliament. In delivering the death sentence, the Supreme Court in Delhi opined that this act was intended “to satisfy the collective conscience of the nation.” I’m in agreement with Prashant Bhushan who, pleading for commuting of the death sentence, has written that “the government can certainly take the view that [death by hanging] is not appropriate or that this would alienate and inflame the collective conscience of the people of Kashmir.” And here’s why:
I however feel that the death sentence should be commuted in such cases because the crimes of Afzal or even the terrorists who attacked Parliament are not committed for personal gain but because they nurse a strong sense of grievance against the perceived injustice done to them by the Indian State. Their crime was seen by them as a cause for which they were prepared to die. Such people can not be deterred by hanging them. This is in fact likely to create more such militants. One can deal with such people only by trying to address their sense of grievance.
Also read Badri Raina.
Sonia Jabbar even argues in The Hindustan Times (Hang The Truth, Oct 17) if Afzal was actually the mastermind behind the Parliament attack and questions the shoddy investigative work done to prove his guilt:
“The second argument of ‘sending out a wrong message’ is intimately tied up with assumptions of Afzal’s guilt. Television shows are full of people indignantly proclaiming Afzal to be a terrorist and the mastermind of the Parliament attack. Both are patently false. The investigating agencies and the prosecution named three masterminds: Maulana Masood Azhar, chief of the Jaish-e-Mohammad and the prisoner exchanged for the IC-814 hostages; Ghazi Baba, the alleged chief of Jaish operations in J&K; and Tariq Ahmed, a Kashmiri. The Supreme Court acknowledged that Afzal was neither the mastermind nor the executor of the Parliament attack, and that it had no direct evidence, but only circumstantial evidence to prove Afzal’s guilt as a conspirator. The Parliament attack was a serious and unprecedented crime and Afzal’s sensational arrest two days after the attack, his trial, and subsequent debates on the death sentence all serve to divert attention away from the crime itself…”
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1822302,00120001.htm
Comment by Zafar — October 18, 2006 @ 1:31 am
I think that Pakistan would be a nice place for you and u will be happy
Comment by Sri — October 24, 2006 @ 2:58 am
http://www.justiceforafzalguru.org
Comment by Sandeep Vaidya — November 11, 2006 @ 1:58 pm
terrorism is due to un justice in the world.
Comment by junaid jamshed — October 2, 2009 @ 10:59 am
you are 100% right above person.
Comment by bollywood songs — November 15, 2009 @ 3:34 pm
Terrorism is not a muslim monopoly.
Comment by Asif Zardari — November 16, 2009 @ 3:11 pm
world wants to end terrorists not the reason of terror that is injustice.
Comment by Islam Ali Mohammad — November 18, 2009 @ 3:07 pm