Articles

Validity of Death Penalty: A Sine Qua Non

By Sudha Dixit

Hate the sin not the sinner, a very laudable quote often used by Mahatma Gandhi. Bapu, had he survived, might have said that Godse should not be hanged. Well he never got that chance but frankly it would not have mattered to Bapu whether Godse lived or died. Dead people are beyond revenge.

 The point, my friends is how much we hate sin and condemn the sinful act. It’s not going to help remove the sin from society. Unless and until the sinner is punished his breed will multiply like rabbits. Sinners will have fun stealing, raping, killing, mass murdering and then saying ‘Sorry, please do not hate us’ and will go laughing merrily. How does this scenario look, pretty holy or absolutely appalling?

 Bapu also said “an eye for an eye will leave whole the world blind”. I beg to differ. After all, not every one in the whole world is out to gorge every other person’s eyes out. Similarly, every body in the world is not a thief, rapist, dacoit or murderer. The world consists largely of good people. Only a fistful of bad guys are out there to give a bad name to the society. A single fish pollutes the entire pond and that single fish needs to be fished out. The same rule applies to humans…err….I mean inhumans. The world will be a better place without them.

 Many so called humanists are clamouring against hanging of the 1993 terror attack accused Yakub Memon. How noble and opportunistic. These very people will forgo all feelings of nobility when they are personally affected by such sinners and their sinister design. Some well known people too, do not let an opportunity to gain mileage pass by. Tushar Gandhi grandly opposes capital punishment. Editor of a prominent news paper says that death sentence is vindictive and archaic and should be dispensed with whatever the degree and nature of the crime. The state has no power to frame laws that kill people, nor the power to execute them. Three cheers for this grandiose sublime sentiment. These people will even absolve a rapist for his reprehensible crime (remember, ‘boys will be boys’). Going by the kind of arguments and reasoning put forward by the types of Tushar Gandhi, Wares Pathan, Sanjay Hegde and John Dayal etc. we should not have an army in our country. We should not have allowed the Panjab Police and the commandos to kill the terrorists who attacked Gurdaspur.

 People who cry foul against hanging or shooting of a rapist or terrorist have perhaps not lost their loved one by the terrorist and have never perceived the agony inflicted by a rapist. Mr. Mahendra Sapre gives a strong reason against the brouhaha of the pseudo-intellectuals. He says, a terrorist in jail makes the whole nation vulnerable to hijacking, storming, bombing and what not. Terrorists should be totally out of the purview of any consideration of dropping the death penalty clause. Secondly, rape should also be out of this consideration. Yakub who killed 257 people without ever thinking about them as human being or about their families was so worried about his impending death that he could neither eat nor sleep. The brave macho and undaunted muscle man became sad and cowered in his cell after hearing that his mercy plea had been rejected. By the way, he killed 257 people, let him be the 258th. What’s the big deal activist folk!

 This is what happens killers are never brave. They are the most coward of the species and cowards always stab at the back. They never reform. They are the carrier insects of bacteria and virus. They are responsible for all the ills of the society. They should be eliminated like mosquitos, flies from the face of this earth. Snake are endangered species, they are essential for environment. But if a snake creeps into a house and bites some one, it is killed, because human life is more precious than a snake. The terrorist and the rapist are not even essential for environment. So be done with them. Good riddance.

 Now coming to death penalty, whether for punishment or retribution why do we shy away from it? People are not cruel but they don’t want to suffer from cruelty of the unscrupulous persons. They want to retaliate with quid pro quo. You may call me a killer because I advocate hanging or electric chair to rapists, terrorists, brutal murderers but I think state has a duty to eliminate such elements and I stand by my conviction.

About The Author:  Sudha Dixit is from Lucknow and studied at Aligarh Muslim Univ., Lucknow Univ. and Banaras Hindu University. She currently resides in Bangalore. She writes articles, poems in both Hindi & English. Her hobbies include painting and reading.

2 Comments

  1. a well written eye opener
    people who support such heinous criminals should be ordered by the army to go fight these terrorists in the Punjab and the world around; I am sure when such a legislation ever passes all these so called humanitarians will hibernate and never emerge out of it

  2. It’s a very well written article. It’s true we have to try our best to uproot evil doers before they take charge of Mother Earth and reign ruthlessly. You are absolutely right in saying those who haven’t suffered any loss fail to see the pain and sufferings of others. In a poem I once read that just as we chop a tree’s branches first & gradually reach to its roots and then only we can uproot it . In the same way the branches of evil have to be cut off if we wish to uproot gross evil doings in this world.