Author: Mihir Srivastava
Publication: India Today
Date: August 11, 2008
Introduction: Even two year after apex court
upheld the death penalty for Afzal Guru, the Centre sits on his mercy petition,
given ample evidence that it places votebank politics over fighting terror
For Mohammed Afzal Guru, it's the waiting
that's the hardest part. So hard that the prime accused in the Parliament
attack case hopes that L.K. Advani becomes the next prime minister.
Not for any political reasons but to expedite
the decision on his death sentence. "I really wish Advani becomes the
prime minister as he is the only one who can take a decision and hang me.
At least my pain and daily suffering would ease then," said Afzal, who
is lodged in solitary confinement in Delhi's high-security Tihar Jail.
It was exactly two years ago that the Supreme
Court upheld the death sentence for Afzal and fixed October 20, 2006, as the
date of his hanging. But a mercy petition, which he was reportedly opposed
to, filed by his wife Tabassum and mother Ayesha Begum, saw his execution
being put off two weeks before it was scheduled.
The then president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, to
whom the petition was addressed, promptly referred the matter to the Ministry
of Home Affairs (MHA) which in turn referred it to the Delhi Government for
"its comments".
Two years on, in reply to a RTI query from
India Today, Rashtrapati Bhavan says it is still awaiting a reply from the
MHA.
Accusing the UPA Government of playing minority
politics that led to the inordinate delay in Afzal's case, Advani said, "The
UPA Government will be held accountable for its inaction in the Afzal Guru
case… and for reducing the country's image to that of a soft state."
What the BJP leader perhaps left unsaid was
the Congress party does not have the necessary will to hang a terrorist sentenced
for masterminding the attack on Parliament, the symbol of Indian democracy.
Indeed, if the terrorists' plans had not been
foiled by the brave soldiers, six of whom sacrificed their lives, a chunk
of India's political leadership cutting across party lines and ideological
leanings would have been wiped out on December 13, 2001.
No party wants to be seen as being soft on
terror, not even the Congress despite being known to put votebanks above tackling
terrorism in its priority list.
Yet, party spokesperson Manish Tiwari found
an innovative way to put the blame on the BJP in general and Advani in particular
for the delay in Afzal's matter.
"Advani is squarely responsible for the
delay in the disposal of Afzal's clemency petition. Several such pleas were
allowed to pile up during the previous government's tenure which, if cleared
in normal course, wouldn't have brought us to this situation."
Tiwari was referring to the long list of mercy
pleas pending before the President, 15 when the NDA was in power which has
now gone up to 28, without a single case being decided in the last four years.
It was his contention that petitions are processed
only in the order they are received by the President and that it would be
a while before Afzal's is disposed of by the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Curiously, the BJP and Afzal seem to agree
on the UPA Government's lack of commitment to fight terrorism. "We have
been saying from the very beginning that if Afzal is not hanged, it will send
a wrong message," says BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar.
He brushes aside Tiwari's contention of the
long pending list of mercy petitions as a lame excuse. According to him, there
is no law that binds the Government to follow a first-come-first-serve principle
here.
He says the nature of the crime gave the Government
the prerogative to prioritise a decision on Afzal's petition which it is unwilling
to exercise. "It is not a post office that you have to wait in queue,"
Javadekar says, "let us come back to power, we will hang him within 10
months."
The BJP doesn't come out smelling of roses
either. "They can say anything when they are out of power, what matters
is what they did when they were in power," says Congress spokesperson
Abhishek Manu Singhvi, accusing the BJP of chest-beating to create a climate
of jingoism.
In the week that saw perhaps the most orchestrated
terror acts in the country since the Mumbai serial blasts in January 2003,
ruling and Opposition politicians began to duel over the need to bring in
new laws to tame the perpetrators.
BJP leaders want Prevention of Terrorism Act
(POTA), enacted in 2001 by the NDA and repealed by the UPA on the grounds
of its misuse, to be brought back. Though states ruled by the party have passed
POTA-like laws to tackle terrorism, they are still awaiting presidential assent
to enforce them.
This, the BJP says, is a proof of the Congress's
doublespeak. Visiting the blast-affected areas of Ahmedabad last week, Advani
noted that while anti-terror laws recommended by the BJP-ruled Gujarat and
Rajasthan are awaiting Centre's approval, Congress-ruled Maharashtra had its
own law to tackle terror, the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).
Any law is only as good as its implementation.
On anti-terror laws, sadly, the UPA Government is seen dragging its feet.
