Eight O’clock, eight persons, eight minutes’ hanging of Guru took eight years

 Anil Narendra         

Yes, the Kashmiri fruit merchant, Mohammad Afzal Guru, who had helped the Jash-e-Mohammad terrorists in carrying out the terrorist attack on the Parliament in 2001, was hanged at 8.00 in the morning amidst secrecy, he remained hanging on the noose for eight minutes action, in the presence of eight persons. The UPA Government has however, taken eight years to execute the death sentence. Justice Shiv Narain Dhingra, Additional Session Judge at Patiala House Court had convicted Afzal Guru and sentenced him to death in 2002. Whole country was seething with anger at the terrorist attack on this largest democracy of the world. The investigation agencies had ample proofs to convict the culprits involved. Various courts right from the Lower Court to the Supreme Court sentenced the main culprit of the Parliament attack, Afzal Guru to death within the stipulated time. But, the Government, itself took eight years in pulling the hangman’s noose. Before we embark upon the requisite debate over the reasons of execution of the death sentence in secrecy, it is necessary to talk about two things. I would like to ask the people, who consider the death sentence to Afzal Guru wrong and unlawful and say that his hearing was not carried out properly, if they are not forgetting the fact that the Delhi High Court had, while hearing the writ petition filed by another accused in this case, Professor SAR Gilani of Zakir Hussain College against the decision of the Session Court, which had sentenced Gilani on the basis of circumstantial evidence, declared the evidence submitted by the Police as baseless. The High Court had acquitted Gilani and Afsana of the charges in the Parliament attack case. The second thing that I would like to say is that though Mr Pranab Mukherjee has now become the President of India, but he had been the trouble shooter of the UPA Government for years, and still is. Whenever he felt that the Congress is in danger, he decided to do something to assuage it to check its plummeting graph. Even after becoming the President, he had on a number of occasions, bailed out the Government with his decisions. First it was Ajmal Kasab and now the mercy petition of Afjal Guru, which has not been rejected for nothing. But, now the country

is awaiting more such executions of the condemned convicts in the near future. Main among these are Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar, Balwant Singh Rajoana, Ashfaq alias Arif and Rajiv Gandhi killers. Will the President dispose mercy petitions of these convicts as he had done in the cases of Kasab and Guru? The Congress has tried to kill several birds with one stone by hanging Afzal Guru. What should have been reasons for the UPA and the Congress behind such execution of death sentence to Afzal Guyru? With the execution of Kasab and Guru, the Congress-led Government, which has been struggling with issues like corruption and inflation, has, on the one hand, given reply to the Opposition attacks and its all-round criticism, and on the other, is has also signaled its resolve to take hard decisions. The Opposition was working on a strategy to corner the Government and its Ministers during the ensuing Parliament session. Especially, preparations were afoot to boycott the Minister of Home Affairs for his remarks during the Jaipur Chintan Shivir, on saffron terrorism. In such an atmosphere, by taking such a bold step against terrorism, the Government has tried to defeat the efforts of the Opposition. In fact, the Congress has tried to deflate the future strategy of the Opposition by getting the same Home Minister to decide on the second hanging in order to weaken the allegations against the Home Minister Shinde regarding saffron terrorism and mis-handling the gang rape issue. The activism demonstrated by the Congress during the last one and a half year tenure of the UPA Government clearly shows that it intends to achieve political mileage out of this. These one after other executions of the convicts in sensitive matters has clearly shown that Government, which has been alleged of policy paralysis, has come in the fully active mode and then, afraid of Modi’s march to the Centre, the Congress has tried to nip the evil in the bud that was being considered by Modi as larger part of his publicity campaign or is it a part of Congress strategy to garner votes during the approaching General Elections? It may be mentioned that in the Congress Chintan Shivir in Jaipur on 20^th January, Shinde talked of saffron terrorism and accused BJP and the Sangh of conducting terror camps and the very next day, he called for the file of Afzal Guru. He sent this file to the President on 23^rd January. The matter that had been pending for years was cleared in just 15 days. Why this has happened? There is no dearth of people, who think that this execution is a part of Congress strategy for Lok Sabha elections. The Party is fully aware that in case the BJP contests the elections with Modi as the leader, then the Muslims in the country would vote for Congress as a reactionary gesture. The small steps like execution of death sentence to Afzal would not spoil the calculations of the Congress, because if they have to oppose Modi, then they will naturally have to side by the Congress. It is true that the hanging of Afzal is blow to BJP, because a very important issue has been snatched away from it. Not only this, it will have a damaging effect on the efforts of polarization of Hindu votes by the BJP. BJP had been thinking that the Congress would be speechless in the face of Modi and other leaders presenting their views on terrorism. But, now it is being feared otherwise. The Congress can claim that terrorists were hanged during its rule, but the BJP Government had gone to the extent of escorting terrorists to Kandhar in Afghanistan during its rule.