In the recent days,
the whole Punjab was on the boil over the issue of execution of Balwant Singh
Rajoana. Consequently the issue of the death penalty surfaced and discussed all
over for its various aspects. Students with all their potential of changing the
dynamics of the society must discuss this subject in its every aspect. We
don’t want to romanticize the whole matter but the importance and sensitivity
of the issue demands a much deeper investigation. So the Students for
Society feel obligatory to present its point of view on the issue of death
sentence.
The
Current Issue:- The present issue
regarding the execution of Balwant Singh Rajoana has a complex background that
must be taken into account for before anything else.
We all know that impunity has prevailed in Punjab for decades and culprits of “crimes against humanity” are enjoying
high ranks in police and other government departments. Police led huge mass killings and fake encounters of
innocent people on the name of terrorists in counter-insurgency operation. Indian
judiciary has blatantly failed to address these mass level human rights
violations. After the attack on Golden temple (1984) it was another attack on
the dignity and identity of a Sikh minority. Consequently
the sharp dissent against State emerged when Beant Singh, the CM of Punjab was assassinated in a bomb blast at
the secretariat complex in Chandigarh on August 31, 1995. Most of us know the judicial drama after this assassination.
Recently, an additional Session judge in Chandigarh ordered Rajoana’s execution
on March 31, 2012. On March 28, 2012 India's Home Ministry stayed the execution
following clemency appeals filed by the SGPC. In the same case, Jagtar Singh
Hawara appealed and his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. But Rajoana
has never sought clemency. He explained his actions. He described the deep
wounds on the minority’s psyche caused by the despoiling of the Golden Temple
by the security forces during Operation Blue Star. He spoke of the pogrom
following Indira Gandhi's assassination in 1984. He asked the Chief Justice of
India who were the terrorists: those who did these acts or those who defended
the victims.
Underlying problem of
Centralised Structure:- In fact the whole issue has much more dimensions
than just being an ordinary criminal case. It has a political dimension related
to it that is regarding the rights of minorities and their present state in the
country. The political structure of our country is centralized enabling the
centre to exercise supreme powers over the regional governments which leads to
centralisation of power in hands of the central government. Whereas India is a
country where different ethnicities have flourished, evolved and even
assimilated into mainstream Indian culture yet always retained its identity
owing to various geographical terrains and different forms of historical
formations. In the crux, India is a
multi-national, multi-lingual and multi-cultural country. Different communities over the period have been
alienated due to such a centralised structure and political movements have
surfaced there indicating this fundamental problem in our structure. But
instead of addressing this genuine political issue our governments have always
tried to suppress the political dissent by using its state machinery, be it the
armed forces or the judicial system.
Balwant Singh Rajoana himself represents that political dissent and his
execution is not a judicial but a political matter all along. The solution to
these problems doesn’t lie in the oppression using different tools, but in
addressing the genuine issue with an honest and rational approach. Hence, it is
vital that to respect this socio-historic fact and maintain the unity among
various communities along with inherent dignity, India must adopt a genuine
decentralised federal structure.
Collective Conscience
and State’s Manipulation:- "The incident, which resulted in heavy
casualties, has shaken the entire nation and the collective conscience of the
society will be satisfied if the capital punishment is awarded to the
offender."
This is what the
judgement of the Supreme Court of India says in case of Mohammad Afzal Guru who
is convicted for the attack on the parliament. It is shocking that the Apex
Court has awarded capital punishment ‘to satisfy the collective conscience of
the people’ instead of providing the justice. It just seems like a ‘ritual
murder’. But these kinds of collective conscience, most of the times, is
artificially generated by media and news channels only against the minorities,
but not in the cases when fascist forces like Ranbir Sena commit mass murders
of Dalits and religious minorities. We
have witnessed thousands of people being killed in organised manner for
political gains by various groups like in Delhi(1984), Gujrat(2002) and
Kandhmal(Orissa 2007), dividing the masses on communal lines. On the other
hand, villages have been burnt and women have been raped by armed forces in
various parts of the country, but those incidents weren’t big enough to ‘Shake the Nation’. This shows how the
ruling classes manipulate the situations to serve its purpose without taking
into account the impact such thing would have on a larger scale. The ‘rarest of rare’ clause has always been
used politically. In fact, capital punishment is a tool in the hands of
the state to silent every political dissent.
There have been
several other cases when the ruling class have used the judicial system as a
tool of oppression. Jitan Marandi, a cultural activist from Jharkhand was
convicted to death in the Chilkhari case by a Session Court in Jharkhand. The
death penalty was issued by the judge on the basis of some undependable evidence. By the build-up
through media he was drawn in a false case and even sentenced to death. He was
targeted because he was exposing the harsh reality of tribal areas and was
fighting for the rights of the most oppressed people. Jitan Marandi could
finally get acquitted in the case after the people campaigned in his favour
overwhelmingly and intentions of the state were exposed. Where 77% the people
in a country are living below 20 rupees daily, resistance is inevitable. And
the every person exposing this exploitation is targeted at by the ruling class.
So is the case of Binayak Sen who was sentenced for life imprisonment.
Death Penalty, the ultimate denial of
human rights:-
Every time these kinds
of punishments are used to silent the dissenting voices rather than addressing real
problems, which doesn’t seem to be the character of a democratic country. The
death penalty is the ultimate denial of human rights. It is the premeditated and cold-blooded killing of a human being by the
state. This cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment is done in the name of
justice. As long as human justice remains fallible, the risk of executing the
innocent can never be eliminated. The death penalty does not deter crime, and
there is always the danger of an innocent person being put to death. It is
revenge, not justice. Also according to Amnesty International, The death
penalty:
- denies the possibility of rehabilitation and reconciliation.
- promotes simplistic responses to complex human problems, rather than pursuing explanations that could inform positive strategies.
- is a symptom of a culture of violence, not a solution to it. It is an affront to human dignity.
Moreover if we look
into facts that most of the times capital punishment is exercised over the
minorities, tribals, dalits, poor class and most oppressed people. Crime is not
an individual phenomenon, it is either a state supported act or consequence of
the complex and exploitive socio-economic structure of our society. By
creating fear in human mind, problems can’t be eliminated otherwise there was
no need to fight for democratic values during feudal era. Thus all the
political prisoners must be released and all the political and socio-economic
issues must be treated in a rational and democratic way. Hence capital
punishment is not justified rather it becomes a tool of oppression against
dissent in the hands of state curtailing democratic space. Now 97 countries
have abolished death penalty on these grounds respecting the human life and its
value. So we appeal the students to come in front to oppose this barbaric
institution of State oppression and agitate for Abolition of Death Penalty
in any case. At last, we appeal the conscious and responsible students to
struggle for Balwant Singh Rajoana’s release and also fight against
opportunistic fundamentalist state sponsored fascist forces.
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Invitation:-
We,
SFS cordially invite you to attend a discussion on Capital Punishment.
Date :-
11th April, 2012 Time :- 04:30 pm
Venue :-Lawn Between Arts
Block-3 and Women Studies Department, Near UBS Canteen, Panjab University
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