[Reader-list] mockery of death: Tehelka

Sat Oct 18 18:11:08 IST 2008

No, no, no... we can't do away with death penalty. How can we kill the Muslims terrorists then in encounters. After all, encounters are death sentences (without trial and judgment). These are the only way to kill people at will. We can't do away with death penalty. No way. If you do want to remove it, then invent a gun that freezes the entire action accused in an encounter, so that we'll know exactly happened.

--- On Sat, 18/10/08, Prabhakar Singh <prabhakardelhi at yahoo.com> wrote:

> From: Prabhakar Singh <prabhakardelhi at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: [Reader-list] mockery of death: Tehelka
> To: "inder salim" <indersalim at gmail.com>, reader-list at sarai.net
> Date: Saturday, 18 October, 2008, 5:58 PM
> 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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