By Sudha Dixit
At last the highest court of the country has come up with commendable judgment – ‘to be hanged till death’. Yes! The beasts deserve it. Their counsel says that he “will appeal against the judgment” & that “No one has right to take life of another human being”. Exactly Mr. Lawyer, no one has such right, not even your clients. So if they did it (killed another human being) shouldn’t they be made to pay in the same coin? They will never reform. Their death will deter others from committing such crime. Hail judiciary!
The defense lawyer Mr. A.P. Singh quoted Mahatma Gandhi against the death penalty. Let the victim be his sister or daughter and he would be begging for the culprit to be hanged. What he is now doing is simply earning his money in the form of his legal fee. In this case even Bapu would have hanged these beasts – including the escaped master- mind juvenile. The defense lawyer also said that the culprits should be given a chance to reform. How naïve! Does he really think that such criminals can be reformed? No sir, they are born criminals. The brute convict Mukesh, in an interview said that the girl should have agreed to be raped then she would not have been killed. Wow! only a psychopath could talk like that; and he does not deserve to live. He is a danger to the civilized society. Had they not been caught, they would have continued with their evil ways. If they are let off after a few years, they’d come back for revenge. Can we take that risk?
I am still not happy. I am sad that, due to mere difference of six months of age, the juvenile (so called) got away with minimum punishment. His crime was not childish, how could he be treated as juvenile? On top of that his identity is being protected. What an irony – here criminal is shielded and victim is penalized.
By giving the culprits a chance to reform, we take away the chance of maintaining good conduct from other susceptible men. Death penalty is a deterrent to prospective criminals. The casual comment like “boys will be boys” from irresponsible politicians only emboldens men to commit such crimes. People should be taught the seriousness of such crimes and ethics of their conduct. Any girl, walking alone or wearing jeans, is an easy prey (not that sari-clad or burqa wearing women are less vulnerable). Men get all the freedom and facility in the name of culture, in reality this the most uncultured way of thinking.
Many humanists advocate elimination of death – penalty. Let them live with some hard – core criminals and they will see the light. Rape is worse than murder. It kills an entire family. A rapist is a pervert (no normal man can commit a rape). A mentally unstable person can be treated but a psychopath or a pervert has very slim chance of human dignity very much dispensable. There is no place for him on this earth.
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.