A hanging that is hanging in balance!

Literally speaking, the hanging of Sarabjit Singh is hanging in balance. We continue to hear almost on a daily basis some news or the other about his fate but the indications are that he may finally escape the noose and that’s heartening news indeed. A couple of days back, I read in The Hindu that the Indian Wing of the Amnesty International has pointed out some serious flaws in the award of capital punishment in India and has suggested complete scrapping of Capital Punishment in India. Many countries of the world have banned capital punishment and <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" /><st1:country-region><st1lace>India</st1lace></st1:country-region> is one of the few which are still undecided about this ‘progressive measure’. People who favour continuance of capital punishment and those who are vehemently opposed to it have very strong arguments in support of their view. An interesting statistics pertaining to <st1:country-region><st1lace>India</st1lace></st1:country-region> is that the number of people awarded capital punishment for murder is less than one per thousand! We read of murder for gain, murder arising out of property issues and questions of conjugal infidelity and politically motivated murders almost everyday but we hardly come across news relating to someone being put to death officially for such crimes.

Capital punishment has been in existence from time immemorial. It is perhaps an extension of the theory of the survival of the fittest. We come across capital punishment even in Old Testament. Remember how Jesus Christ saved the life of a woman condemned to be stoned to death by asking anyone who had never sinned in his life to cast the first stone? We have some fascinating folklore which tells us of kings like Manu Needhi Chozhan who ordered his son to be trampled to death under the wheels of a chariot as a punishment for the Prince killing a calf by running his chariot over it. Compare these to the drunken children of affluent business tycoons running over pavement dwellers and killing them instantly in their expensive limousines. These children usually escape with minimum punishment.

Human Rights Activists are usually roused to fury when a capital punishment is awarded to someone. There is always a global appeal to spare the lives of people who are awarded death penalty even if they had committed heinous crimes as Saddam Hussain. When he was finally sent to the gallows, activists cried foul when some video footage about the ‘inhuman way’ in which the execution was carried out became public. If Adolf Hitler had not committed suicide, he would have got entangled in some prolonged legal battle and perhaps escaped the noose and lived up to my age!

As more and more murder accused escape the gallows, there is a corresponding increase in the number of murder for vendetta. So many times, we come across under trials being hacked to death in the most gruesome manner. This is the direct result of affected people settling scores among themselves if they are not satisfied with the judicial system. So death will continue to be avenged with death and the activists will succeed only in transferring the job from the Government to the people themselves.

When I googled for information about the methods of capital punishment, I could get about forty of them. Some of them are so gory that you might ‘puke’ hearing about them! It is nice to see that most of them have been abolished and more and more painless ways are being found out. Beheading continues to be practiced in some Islamic countries but otherwise, it is more cultured in other countries. All this change has come about thanks to some large-hearted activists. They do not bother about what has led to the award of capital punishment to a particular individual. He might have killed a whole family in a fit of temper in a ghastly way but in the eyes of the activists all people who are awarded capital punishment deserve sympathy.

I started writing about all this when I was brooding over how mercilessly we award capital punishment everyday. How we swat a mosquito mercilessly to a bloody end just for alighting on our torso! A man may have killed dozens of people and yet we may claim clemency for him. But when it comes to other living things, the least penalty that we think of is death! The other day I saw a young boy crushing a caterpillar under his shoes and when I asked him why, he just said that he did not like caterpillars! It was like Hitler exterminating Jews because he did not like them!

 

Dear AC
Now I get to see your otherside, the serious and profound one. When I started belting out this thread, I was a bit doubtful about much discussion on a serious subject like hanging. And I am so happy that you are the first one to delve further into this subject. A big thank you.
Though I had mentioned about the killing of the caterpiller in the passing, it weighs heavily in my mind. When humans can take such a strong position about saving their own species, why is he unmindful of other living things. Why is it that he never thinks of peaceful coexistence? When he can go all out to protect the worst criminals in the name of Human Rights, why is he trampling to death an innocent insect? In fact, I wanted to focus on this question mainly but got carried away with the subject of hanging but you caught on to my point alright.
We have already made this planet unfit for thousands of living things. Many of them have to be classified as endangered species. Only yesterday I was reading in the Hindu that the vulture population in India has come down from tens of millions in the 1980's to just about 11000 today! Man protects only those species which are useful to him according to his own perception. But he forgets that not a blade of grass nor a unicellular organism has been created by God in vain. He has a reason for everything. When Noah built the Ark to escape the Deluge, he was not selective in admitting a pair of each of all living things!
Sri

 

Dear Chithra
When you use the can of Hit with a nozzle, do you wear a headgear and smile cruelly after thy job is done? I love a lot of icing in this cruel summer! Dont you worry!
Sri

 

Dear AC
What can I say? I may in a weak moment accept killing of insects out of fear or on health grounds but I hate that triumphant look some people wear after the Samharam!
Thses are times when I really mourn the wholesale extinction of the dinosaurs!
Sri