[Reader-list] mockery of death: Tehelka

[Prabhakar Singh]

It is high time that death penlaty is done away with. Not only it is unjustified it serves no purpose at all.



----- Original Message ----
From: inder salim <indersalim at gmail.com>
To: reader-list at sarai.net
Sent: Saturday, 18 October, 2008 4:41:44 PM
Subject: [Reader-list] mockery of death: Tehelka

t


http://www.tehelka.com/story_main40.asp?filename=cr251008mockery_ofdeath.asp

Mockery Of Death

As India continues its spree of untabulated death sentences, GOWHAR
FAZILI questions the relevance of capital punishment today

ON OCTOBER 10, 2008, five members of Amnesty International carried out
a mock mass hanging near New Delhi's India Gate. They wore black hoods
and nooses around their necks and hung themselves from a 12-foot life
like hanging post made of foam. Their tshirts carried the message
'Mujhe Bacha Lo!' and 'Save Me'. Within 20 minutes, the police swung
into action and stopped the performance, arresting four performers,
including Inder Salim, a performance artist, and pushed them into a
police van. Inder later said, "The disconnection between art and life
makes it easier for the establishment to handle both by putting each
in its box. But as soon as we bring it on to the street, it comes back
to life imbued with new meaning. Also, the materials we use change the
perception of art. In this case, simply because the hang post is made
of foam and cloth and bends as one hangs, the act is transformed into
something laughable even while it communicates the ugliness of the
idea it represents; that is, to hang someone."

The event was held on World Day Against Death Penalty, which
commemorates the attempt to press home the demand for universal
abolition of capital punishment by the World Coalition Against Death
Penalty (WCADP), Anti Death Penalty Asia Network (ADPAN) and Amnesty
International, along with a host of coalition partners. There is an
increasing global shift away from inhuman practices like death
penalty. Argentina, being the most recent example, was the latest to
announce abolition of death penalty on September 12, 2008.
Contrastingly, on December 18, 2007, India chose to vote against the
motion along with Pakistan and China, in response to the UN General
Assembly call for a Universal Moratorium on Death Penalty. This is
shocking for a country which advocates non-violence worldwide. While
the judiciary claims to issue Death Penalty only in the 'rarest of the
rare' cases, death as a punishment in India is increasingly being
offered as a short cut solution to most problems we face today.

On May 2, 2008, Amnesty International India issued a report based on
the study of 700 judgments on cases related to the death penalty. It
conclusively established how the death penalty in India has lead to a
miscarriage of justice on more than six counts. Among these are the
fallibility of circumstantial evidence due to absence of forensic
facilities, non-availability of adequate legal representation, absence
of sufficient safe-guards especially in the case of ever increasing
anti-terrorist legislation, delays in carrying out of sentences, etc.
The legal fraternity has taken a serious note of the report. Even the
Supreme Court has validated the findings of the report by quoting from
it in its proceedings. The Government of India, in turn, has failed to
study death penalty since 1979 and despite concerns about its misuse,
finds it still relevant. Worse still, the government claims that it
does not maintain statistics on death penalty cases and executions
conducted in India since Independence. This absence of information is
in clear violation of the international convention (resolution 1989/64
adopted on 24 May 1989), which requires the signatories to maintain
annual statistics and transparency on the issue.

Various National Human Rights Commission chairpersons have expressed
the need to review capital punishment, but these have been mere
statements falling on the deaf ears of the state. A significant number
of judges and Presidents shift to opposition of death penalty after
retirement. An increasing number of world bodies are calling for a
universal moratorium on Death Penalty, including the European Union.
But the government machinery, so far, is largely unmoved.

For India, this could be an opportunity to seize leadership and help
persuade the 14 residual Asian countries towards abolition, or else to
trail behind in this regard, violating its founding spirit of Ahimsa
and be counted among the rogue nations.

Fazili is Coordinator, Anti Death Penalty Campaign, at Amnesty India
From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 5, Issue 42, Dated Oct 25, 2008


to see more media coverage
http://www.amnesty.org.in/pages/media_coverage.aspx

and images http://indersalim.livejournal.com

warmly
inder salim



-- 

http://indersalim.livejournal.com
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