The death penalty is back in the limelight in India after a long time, this time for all the wrong reasons — mostly political. The issue came back into focus after Indian President Pratibha Patil approved the executions of two death row prisoners. Patil accepted the Indian Home Ministry’s recommendations to reject the mercy petitions of death row prisoners Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar and Mahendra Nath Das.
Bhullar was sentenced to death in 2001 for plotting terror attacks that killed nine people in Delhi in 1993. Das has been on death row since 1997 for committing a murder in Guwahati, Assam in 1996. It is the case of Bhullar that has added a political dimension to the issue.
These would be the first executions in India since 2004 when rapist-killer Dhananjay Chatterjee was hanged after then President APJ Kalam rejected his mercy plea. Although India voted against the resolution for a moratorium on the use of the death penalty, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2007, 2008 and 2010, President Patil had commuted the death sentences of 20 prisoners since November 2009. This time it’s different.
Both Bhullar and Das were moved up the queue, ahead of several other pleas – most notably that of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi’s killers. Bhullar’s plea was pending since 2003, whereas those of Rajiv Gandhi’s assassins Murugan, Santhan and Arivu have been hanging fire since 2000. The ministry gave its final recommendation on Bhullar’s plea on August 9, 2005, while its recommendation on Gandhi’s killers were given on June 21, 2005, almost two months earlier.
The decision in Bhullar’s case came within two days of the Supreme Court issuing a notice to the Central government to explain why his mercy plea had been pending for the past eight years. Bhullar’s case has become an issue in his home state of Punjab where State Assembly elections are slated to be held early next year.
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) there has already sought “direct and immediate intervention of the Prime Minister to save the life of Bhullar on grounds of humanitarianism and civilised concern and above all national interest” while state Congress President, Amarinder Singh has said “killing a man is not going to solve the problem.”
The Congress, which heads the ruling coalition in Delhi, has distanced itself from Singh. Various Sikh organisations, on the other hand, are pleading for clemency.
No one has, so far, taken up the case of Das.
The Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has taken the issue further. It is clamouring for the death penalty being awarded to Afzal Guru, whose mercy plea is still pending with the Home Ministry. Guru was convicted for his role in the attack on India’s Parliament in 2001. The BJP is accusing the government of duplicity since Guru’s case is still pending with the Home Ministry. In Bhullar’s case, Patil acted promptly after being pulled up by the court.
None of the exchanges, however, have centred around the issue of the death penalty itself. Amnesty International has described the mercy plea rejections as a setback for human rights in the country.
“For India to revive capital punishment now would also be bucking the global trend towards abolition of the death penalty, with numbers of executions continuing to decline,” it said.
The death penalty is not a major issue in India.
