Kasab needs a public hanging
It is exactly one year and four days to the 26/11 terror attack on Mumbai. TV channels ensured the nation got a complete and almost real re-run of those dastardly 62 plus hours of Pakistani siege that changed the face of Mumbai forever.
Sadly however, even after such a big time lapse to the incident, there has been no, absolutely no, movement in punishing the guilty. All the Government has been able to do is submit a huge dossier to Pakistan, citing all the evidence it has collected and all Pakistan has done is hedge for a year and then just a day before the anniversary of this biggest terror attack on its neighbour, book seven men for the conspiracy and execution of the incident that took more than 150 lives.
Is that not too less too late? The PM, touring the US and Spain as of now, certainly feels so. Perhaps, he has forgotten his misadventure of announcing from Sharm in Egypt that India would delink terror with talks with its wily neighbour. Nothing could be softer than this announcement which he soon took back but the move does explain the slowmo on the action being taken in the 26/11 case.
We also hear through reports in the media that the upkeep of Kasab, the lone terrorist who was caught alive after the attack, has cost public money worth Rs 32 crore and mounting! Indian law does not have provision for its citizens to call for an official explanation of the Government on such counts but no one would agree more than the Government itself that this is an obscene amount of money wasted on the man who should be, without ado, hanged from the portals of the Gateway of India as a small gesture to assure the Indian population that the Government does have some intent to punish the guilty.
Kasab has given almost all information needed and really there is no need to keep him alive and feed him paneer, biryani and other hospitalities accorded to guests.
To hang him publicly would not be a bad idea at all, but a soft-pedalling Government does need some teeth to come to this decision, considering that it has been inordinately delaying the hanging of Afzal Guru despite him being given the death penalty by the nation’s highest court, the Supreme Court of India.
Returning to Kasab, he is but a small fry in the entire terror road map Pakistan has charted from its territory. A petty thief, young and newly initiated into the game – that too not for Islam but for the lucre it begets him — Kasab is just a small spoke in the massive wheel which is being steered by much more dangerous men than him. It is for our Government to go after them without delay and at the risk of outraging the sensibilities of the outside world.
One year has passed and most of the perpetrators based in Pakistan have been enjoying State patronage and pampering. It is a mockery of India’s status in the region and all talk of “good restraint” is actually a teaming up of bigwigs fobbing off justice for our nation in self-interest in this highly volatile region.
Ask America if it would have spared takers of American lives and opted for restraint “for the cause of world peace.” Had this been the approach, the post-9/11 world would not have been reeling under the American invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan.
India should learn to respect its citizens’ lives and it is from such respect only that the muscle to fight terror can emanate.
Also, the Indians should ask why there has not been a single attack on America after 9/11 whereas in India terror has not just strolled out of the Kashmir Valley but it is being orchestrated with ascending élan throughout the nation, that too at random.
Sadly however, even after such a big time lapse to the incident, there has been no, absolutely no, movement in punishing the guilty. All the Government has been able to do is submit a huge dossier to Pakistan, citing all the evidence it has collected and all Pakistan has done is hedge for a year and then just a day before the anniversary of this biggest terror attack on its neighbour, book seven men for the conspiracy and execution of the incident that took more than 150 lives.
Is that not too less too late? The PM, touring the US and Spain as of now, certainly feels so. Perhaps, he has forgotten his misadventure of announcing from Sharm in Egypt that India would delink terror with talks with its wily neighbour. Nothing could be softer than this announcement which he soon took back but the move does explain the slowmo on the action being taken in the 26/11 case.
We also hear through reports in the media that the upkeep of Kasab, the lone terrorist who was caught alive after the attack, has cost public money worth Rs 32 crore and mounting! Indian law does not have provision for its citizens to call for an official explanation of the Government on such counts but no one would agree more than the Government itself that this is an obscene amount of money wasted on the man who should be, without ado, hanged from the portals of the Gateway of India as a small gesture to assure the Indian population that the Government does have some intent to punish the guilty.
Kasab has given almost all information needed and really there is no need to keep him alive and feed him paneer, biryani and other hospitalities accorded to guests.
To hang him publicly would not be a bad idea at all, but a soft-pedalling Government does need some teeth to come to this decision, considering that it has been inordinately delaying the hanging of Afzal Guru despite him being given the death penalty by the nation’s highest court, the Supreme Court of India.
Returning to Kasab, he is but a small fry in the entire terror road map Pakistan has charted from its territory. A petty thief, young and newly initiated into the game – that too not for Islam but for the lucre it begets him — Kasab is just a small spoke in the massive wheel which is being steered by much more dangerous men than him. It is for our Government to go after them without delay and at the risk of outraging the sensibilities of the outside world.
One year has passed and most of the perpetrators based in Pakistan have been enjoying State patronage and pampering. It is a mockery of India’s status in the region and all talk of “good restraint” is actually a teaming up of bigwigs fobbing off justice for our nation in self-interest in this highly volatile region.
Ask America if it would have spared takers of American lives and opted for restraint “for the cause of world peace.” Had this been the approach, the post-9/11 world would not have been reeling under the American invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan.
India should learn to respect its citizens’ lives and it is from such respect only that the muscle to fight terror can emanate.
Also, the Indians should ask why there has not been a single attack on America after 9/11 whereas in India terror has not just strolled out of the Kashmir Valley but it is being orchestrated with ascending élan throughout the nation, that too at random.
Published November 29, 2009, Sunday Pioneer, http://www.dailypioneer.com/219002/Kasab-needs-a-public-hanging.html
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