There has been a furore recently on awarding capital punishment to the convicted in India. The demand for abolishing the capital punishment by Human Rights organizations and upholding it by other organizations has raised the curtains for this debate.
Many eminent indian scholars recently have written on abolishing the capital punishment. The reasons being given are, first, awarding capital punishment to the culprits is a grave violation of human rights. People should note that death penalty is handed over in only the rarest of the rare cases by indian judiciary, where the convicted has commited a inhumane and gruesome act which has shaken the nation's conscience. Whether the convict, who has created a sense of shock and a feeling of insecurity in the minds of people deserve the protection of human rights is a question that human and civil rights orgainizations must ask themselves. What about the human rights for the victims?
Second, a claim that awarding capital punishment to the culprit does not act as a deterrent, is well supported by significant crime data from recent past. The primary aim of punishment is to make the culprit as well as the people aware that he/she has committed a mistake which must not have been, and rest all including it "acting as deterrent" come further. Cuplrits must be punished on the gravity of the crime committed by them but not on the effect of the punishment awarded.
Third, the adverse social condition of the culprits forced them to commit such crimes and the society's indifference is being blamed instead. Significant population our country is under poverty and their situation is similar to the culprits, but not all of them take out their frustration by committing heinous crimes. The poor condition of the people cannot be given as an excuse to justify the crimes committed.
Fourth, no matter how wicked the crime committed by the culprits, they must be given a chance to rehabilitate but not the death penalty. With rampant corruption across various organizations in our country, the culprit if given an opportunity for rehabilitaton can misuse and it definately gives a wrong signal to the culprits that they can walk scot free even if they commit a crime of any magnitude.
Though death penalty is extreme punishment, it should not be abolished with immediate effect in our country where the investigation into the crime and judicial proceedings take very long time, several decades in few cases. Abolishing capital punishment takes the tooth out of indian penal code. The government must first take steps to reform police system to carry out the investigation quickly in a transparent and unbiased manner and judiciary to deliver the verdict as soon as possible. And then a decision on abolishing the capital punishment can be taken.
nice topic of discussion!!! You r becoming a voice of our group! Picking up very important topics and making us think about them. Good work so far and do keep it going!!! I would love to have more n more from u!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks Sumeet. I too am waiting for your blog, hope i would get the opportunity soon :)
ReplyDeleteNice article Srikanth. This triggered a lot of fundamental doubts in me like what is the real rationale behind awarding a "Punishment" ... is it to make others fear for commiting the same mistake ? to give a solace to the victims ? to make the person realise his mistake and get transformed? or all the three reasons?
ReplyDelete(Tone of my writing below is with a deep concern to life ... whether it is of a criminal or victim)
Let us take each reason one by one.
All the people who did commit rarest of the rare crimes,be it a rapist or terrorist , knew about the capital punishment and still did it because a rapist was driven by his extreme want of sex and terroist driven by a dangerous idealogy..both of them when committed the crime were only focused on their target not on the law. We have morality,we know what our religion and constitution tells and still we loose it in some conditions and do some thing shamefull (might not be a murder or rape or something that goes upto police/court)...what i want to say is the extent of punishment would never be measured by a person who is out of his control..so why raise the extent of punishment to "Death Penality"?
Let us take crimes like murders,assasinations which are not done on the spur of the moment but planned by cool heads for days/months..they too know the law but they continue to plan by taking steps to escape form the law enforcement (they may or maynot be sucessfull but they will take that chance). So even in this case raising the extent of punishment to death penality doesnot mean much to me as it wont stop the crimes.
Lets take the second reason ... giving solace to victim by killing the person who effected his/her life. At max, the victim might feel a sense of revenge taken for few moments or days, but he can never get out of the grief of his loss just because of the death of the sinner. The loss will effect him/her or his/her loved ones (victim's) in different degrees throughout his/her life.
Also we should not forget that by killing the criminal there is some innocent people (his family) would be terribly effected..we might not nullify the loss to the victim's family but we for sure will create a huge loss to the criminal's family by this new killing. So why to go to the extent of capital punishment?
And the third reason ... to make the person realise his mistake and get transformed. If this is also a rationale behind punishements then we are clearly killing the purpose by giving a "Capital Punishment".
I cannot express my feeling completely buy i never felt happy or relieved or fear (of not commiting such crime) when when i listen that a person is hanged/killed .