New Delhi: First things first. The highest court in the country the Supreme Court of India upheld the death sentence to Yakub Memon after it was convinced that he was a dreaded terrorist who was responsible for the mass murder of hundreds of people in Mumbai in 1993. The highest Constitutional authority in India, President Pranab Mukherjee rejected his mercy pleas after he was also convinced that Yakub Memon deserved no clemency for his acts.
Both the President and the Supreme Court had kept their doors open for him till the last minute. It clearly shows that our judiciary is robust and gave every available opportunity to Yakub Memon to plead his case. Finally he was hanged. All legal formalities were strictly followed during his sentencing and even after.
The family members of the bomb blast victims welcomed the hanging. Hundreds of victims who were injured also felt that finally some justice had been done, even though it came 23 years after the dastardly incident that shook the nation.
One can't find fault with Yakub Memon and his family for trying their best till the last minute to save him from the noose. Quiet understandably they did everything they could.
Some self-appointed human rights and civil society activists, who were nowhere in the last 23 years, suddenly emerged from somewhere and tried to hijack the issue. These publicity hungry people demanded that Yakub Memon be spared. Beating their chest they called it a government sponsored 'murder'. They were totally unconcerned about the plight of bomb blast victims and their families. When their efforts made no headway, they even gave communal colour to the issue.
They even twisted former RAW officer B Raman's version on Yakub Memon's 'surrender'. Raman has not written anywhere that Yakub had surrendered on his own. He clearly stated that Yakub was arrested by the Nepalese police after he boarded a flight from Kathmandu for Pakistan in 1994. The investigative agencies might have told him that his life would be spared if he revealed everything about the diabolical Mumbai terror plot. There is no official confirmation on this. Neither Yakub, nor prosecution told the courts about this in the last 23 years.
All of us must understand that the courts don't work on sentiments. They work on the principles of justice, which mandated the courts to sentence Yakub to death for his crime against humanity. Whoever bothers to go through media reports of 1993-94 about the blasts will be fully convinced that Yakub Memon played a major role in planning the entire bombing operation across Mumbai. Such a man certainly does not deserve any mercy.
Whether we need death penalty or not is an entirely different issue. By making Yakub Memon their poster boy of anti-death penalty campaign, these 'bleeding hearts' have actually harmed the cause. They chose a wrong person to drive home the message. No civilised country can be lenient towards terrorism and terrorists.
The government also handled the entire execution in a more civilised and transparent manner. Afzal Guru's hanging by the previous UPA government was an act of cowardice. He was hanged in a hush–hush manner. His family was not even informed. They were not allowed to meet him in the jail before the hanging. His dead body was not shown to them after that. He was secretly buried inside the Tihar jail in Delhi.
Yakub Memon was given every opportunity to defend himself till the last minute. His family was given a chance to meet him before his death. His dead body was handed over to them and they were allowed to bury him properly at his hometown Mumbai.
If these so-called human rights activists really want an end to death penalty, they should first choose a right poster boy, not a condemned terrorist. If they don't do that, they will lose the backing of others who also want an end to this. They must also realise that the elected representatives of people like MPs and MLAs can decide this, not self appointed activists.
In a brazen act of hypocrisy, some of the activists, who are now demanding abolition of the death penalty, were actually favouring it for the rapists earlier. If they feel that the death penalty won't end terrorism, how can they say that it will put an end to rapes?
Many are arguing that the death penalty should be there for the terrorists and the others can be exempted from it. An angry senior police officer said "these people always believe that only the terrorists and other killers have human rights. Not the security forces who fight them and the victims. Government should withdraw their security cover. Since they believe that terrorists are good people, they won't harm them".
Another police officer who identified himself as a "Thulla" even posted a strongly worded letter on several websites attacking the hypocrisy of these people, who presume that they speak for the entire nation.
Admirably, the Memon family maintained a distance from these people and fought their legal battle on their own. They did not allow them to hijack the issue. They even kept the sound bite hungry media away from them. Even after his hanging, they cooperated with the police in maintaining peace. Their conduct so far has been dignified.
Civil society gets respect only when it maintains neutrality, only when it maintains dignity, only when it stays away from politics, only when it is unbiased. And finally, only when its outrage and activism are not selective.
'Rent a cause' activism is a disgrace to real activism.
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