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Showing posts from November, 2012

Why I Oppose hanging Kasab

I am opposed to the death penalty. That makes me appear obnoxious to many, since the death penalty is often handed out to people who have committed serious crimes. I was opposed to the hanging of Dhananjay Chatterjee, not because I believed he was innocent, but because he was guilty, but death penalty is not a deterrent but an articulation of the eye-for-an-eye “principle”. In fact the one category of people who are hanged though innocent are the fighters on the class struggle front. When Kista Gour and Bhumaiah were hanged, or when, back in the 40s the Kayyur martyrs died, left wing activists knew that the crime involved was really a simple one – refusing to allow the ruling class to rule without putting up a resistance. Such people nether appeal for mercy, nor does one expect the state to show any mercy to them. Hanging them and calling someone like them for discussion and then killing that person (remember a man named Azad?) are all the same. It is a more complicated case with