Time Is Ripe For Indian Parliament to Abolish Death Penalty

 

The PIL Watch Group views with concern the death penalty handed over to 38 convicts - all Muslims - reported to be in relation to 56 deaths in the 2008 bomb blasts case in Ahmedabad, India. The judgement was delivered by a special court. It is hoped that the higher judiciary would revert the death sentences to imprisonment. Globally developed democracies have been rethinking on this crucial issue. The trend is towards abolishing death penalty and moving towards reformative prison sentence. The U.N. has taken a stand against the capital punishment. Most countries have abolished it. India is one of the few countries to have execution law in its statute book.

 

The Indian Supreme Court has veered towards bringing an end to this ‘judicial murder’. It is for Parliament to take a call with an open and dispassionate mind; the issue has been debated earlier in 2004 in Parliament after which executions virtually came to a halt till 2012.

 

Since the last decade (2012-22) PIL Watch Group has been building public opinion against capital punishment irrespective of the crime for which the cases were lodged. The Group started campaigning against death sentence in December 2012 while there was a clamour to award capital punishment to rape convicts. For full two years we campaigned at the national protest site at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, India right amongst those who were clamouring for the blood of the rapists of ‘Nirbhaya’. We circulated leaflets giving reasons why capital punishment should be abolished and which countries have already done so. It was painful to see fellow activists – otherwise co-travellers in many a campaign – on the other side of the fence.

 

The irony is that it is the people from oppressed castes; religious minorities especially Muslims; and tribals who face the gallows in India. Worse, most of those hanged belong to the economically weaker section of the society.

A concerted campaign to bring an end to judicial executions is the need of the hour.

 

 

No Army Veteran Dares To Publish How Rulers ‘Ambushed’ Indian Army From Preventing 1984 Sikh Genocide

 

I salute the veterans who recently dared to write to the President and Prime Minister of India regarding “open call of the genocide of Indian Muslims”; their letter also mentions targeting of other minorities like Christians, Dalits and Sikhs. These brave soldiers and other eminent personalities have written exactly what needed to be said to the powers that be – and at a considerable risk to themselves and their families.

Equally true, even 37 years after the 1984 Sikh genocide, no veteran – with a ring side view – has shown the courage and honesty to publish a book on how the services of Army were called in late during November 1984; how their deployment was delayed; what pressures were put on the soldiers to bid their time on the streets; and at what level in army hierarchy were obstacles created by the political masters of the day. These and other related questions beg an answer; more so because there has been no real reconciliation and peace building process involving the victim community. Not even a formal proper apology has been forthcoming – Manmohan Singh’s utterances in 2004 in Parliament 20 years after the genocide notwithstanding. He appears to have been outsourced to do the most minimal by the remnants of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty.

The Indian Armed Forces has 1455550 active personnel and 1155000 reserve personnel (Wiki). Besides there are about 2.6 million ex-servicemen. (Wiki) Yet not one has had his/her conscience pricked over this hidden conspiracy of the then rulers. What about the debt the Indian Army owes to posterity? It could take a cue from Lt. General Zameer Uddin Shah’s memoirs: “The Sarkari Mussalman: The Life and Travails of a Soldier Educationist” released belatedly in 2018 – but nevertheless at least released. This book throws new light on the delay in deployment of the Army during the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom in Gujarat. Zameer was Deputy Chief of Army Staff, Indian Army at that time.

Zameer got a chance to document the events leading to the pogrom. He wrote about Ahmedabad being aflame; fires burning all across the city; about lack of vehicles and logistic support provided; rampaging mobs and police standing as mute spectators; delayed availability of transport, maps, police guides and magistrates; crucial hours lost; hundreds of soldiers and officers witnessing all this; and the official war diaries which had documented the same.

Irrespective of the time elapsed truth must come out. A similar book by a veteran on the 1984 Sikh genocide would be a step towards truth and reconciliation for the Sikh community. Justice of course is too much to hope for!

I do hope that such a book sees the light of the day before I – an Indian first and then a Sikh – exit this world.

P.S.: I have gone through the author background of 21 books written around 1984 violence against Sikhs; if any book written by a veteran has escaped my attention I apologize in advance.

[P.S. Sahni has worked amongst the victims of 1984 anti-Sikh violence along with a group of professionals for 26 months continuously from the first week of November 1984 onwards in a non-funded, non-party way. Also see by the same author: State Sponsored Terrorism Against Sikhs In November 1984 & The Role Of Peace Warriors:Lessons For The Indian Army

Email: pilwatchgroup@gmail.com]

First published: on 7/1/2022 @  https://countercurrents.org/2022/01/no-army-veteran-dares-to-publish-how-rulers-ambushed-indian-army-from-preventing-1984-sikh-genocide/

Middle Class Hindus Need To Speak Up Even As Fringe Elements Call The Shots

Presently India is fast galloping towards a fascist Hindu state. The Muslim, Sikh, Christian minorities as also the Tribals and Dalits in India are facing threats to their very existence and don’t feel safe anymore.

The dilemma in which middle class Hindus find themselves today is no different from the predicament faced by the same class of Sikhs during the height of militancy in Punjab in 1980s when demand for a theocratic state pushed aside urge for a genuine Federal setup. The Sikh professionals, retired and serving army personnel, religious/spiritual leaders, politicians and other opinion makers were afraid to take a public stance on the issue. True, there were exceptions and some of them paid with their lives. The Sikh community as a whole got labelled as ‘Khalistanis’ by the corporate press leading to its alienation. In a few instances Hindus were selectively targeted by the militants in Punjab. It resulted in simmering anger in the majority community all over India. This got capitalized by the political class to consolidate majority community votes. Rajiv Gandhi government got elected with over 400 seats in parliament. The Sikhs paid a heavy price by way of Operation Blue Star and genocide of Sikhs in 1984 – a term used by the Delhi High Court in its judgement sentencing senior Indian National Congress leader, Sajjan Kumar to life imprisonment.

Indeed there is a lesson to be learnt from the silence of the opinion makers amongst the Sikh community in 1980s. Even though the vast majority of Hindus are peace loving and tolerant; but their failure to take a stance on the process of converting India into a theocratic state needs to be reversed. The opinion makers amongst the majority community will have to stick their necks out. Also, its high time ordinary members of this community muse over the adage:

“Is Chuppi Ko Todo” (Break this silence).

[P.S. Sahni & Shobha Aggarwal are concerned citizens of India. Email: pilwatchgroup@gmail.com]

First published: https://countercurrents.org/2022/01/middle-class-hindus-need-to-speak-up-even-as-fringe-elements-call-the-shots/

Also at: http://www.kashmirtimes.com/newsdet.aspx?q=113048

‘Toofan Aur Deeya’ (Storm and Lamp) – Why Countercurrents should not get extinguished

Binu Mathew, the editor of Countercurrents.org and the editorial team have been working selflessly with minimal funds and accepting no advertisements. Besides CC abhors foreign institutional funding, corporate funding or government aid. It has been in existence for about two decades and standing on the side of the people and taking an anti-establishment stance. To that extent it is like a lamp pitched against the storm, thus far not extinguished.

It is amazing that with the sort of authors Countercurrents is able to attract, Binu still has to beg to collect one million rupees to run the web portal. All around one sees heavily funded NGOs taking centre stage in the name of civil society. I find it shocking that there are well funded centers which finance and file public interest litigations in India. PIL has become an industry! All through one had felt that local resources and local human power should be utilized for any campaign/movement. In fact funding (both foreign as well as governmental) is principally responsible for subverting/hijacking peoples’ campaigns and movements globally. This pattern came into existence in India after Mrs. Gandhi’s Internal Emergency period. She realized that the best way to keep activists at bay is to get them hooked on to funded work so that protest politics withers away. Which it has. The radicalism projected in the articles carried by CC is not matched by the liberal heartedness in ensuring that funds for CC get collected without much fuss.

In a very humble way we opted for the non-funded route over the last four decades. For this reason we would like to see that CC continues to function. We see CC as a poor man’s EPW. True it is pitted against journals which receive huge funds annually for their existence. Most progressive journals online with radical editors I personally know for forty years are receiving crores of rupees from the corporate sector. CC has to compete and outwit these journals even as it fights an emerging Hindu Rashtra/fascism in India. It reminds one of the title song of the Hindi film ‘Toofan Aur Deeya’ viz ‘nirbal ki ladai balwaan se’ soulfully rendered by the inimitable Manna De, which recurs several times during the film highlighting the exigent situation the protagonist is faced with. The song conveys the sublime message of hope and belief that with determination and unstinting efforts no adversity is impossible to overcome.

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[P.S. Sahni is a member of AIDS Bhedbhav Virodhi Andolan and PIL Watch Group. Both groups are non-funded.)