Rajesh Kalra
29 August 2012, 12:33 PM IST
I know I am in a minority, perhaps a hopeless one, but I am not rejoicing at the prospect of Kasab being hanged, now that the Supreme Court has upheld his death sentence. Please don't get me wrong. I am not for a moment suggesting that this barbarian, who has feasted for years on the Indian taxpayers' money, deserves any mercy. I am simply worried about how a poorly handled case has put us at the risk of making a huge martyr of a man who snuffed out innocent lives as if he were playing a video game.
I remember participating in a debate on Times Now when the high court had delivered the death penalty over a year ago. I had argued that this man had been brainwashed into killing innocent people, for a misplaced cause and that he had come prepared to die. If he had died during the operation, it would have meant nothing. He would be considered one among the many attackers who were killed. But now that he has been kept in custody and his handlers and other fundamentalists have started politicking over him, they are waiting for his hanging. Why? Because they want to milk the occasion to fan more fundamentalism. Kasab would be made a martyr, someone who gave his life for the cause.
Needless to say, despite not showing any mercy, I was still the odd man out.
I honestly don't know how this should be handled, but I am pretty certain that the day he is hanged would be yet another day the innocent citizens of this country have to worry about. Worry about venturing out of their homes into crowded marketplace. Worried about getting into a public transport. Worried about whether the lunch boxes they see under the seats in front of them are bombs.
Couldn't we have handled it differently? Why did we need Kasab alive? Because we needed him to reveal the names of the perpetrators behind the dastardly attacks in Mumbai. If that was the intention, couldn't we have simply let the law take its course in a quiet manner rather than making such a big tamasha of it?
But finesse has never been a part of our security system. Remember the siege over Rajiv Gandhi's killers over a decade ago as they were holed up in a flat in South India. What should have been handled quietly and discreetly was done with live cameras as if a Bollywood film was being shot. The result was a foregone conclusion. When the commandos finally entered the flat, all those who were sought to be captured alive had consumed cyanide capsules and were dead.
Clearly we didn't learn a lesson then and won't now. As I said, the common man who is living a frightened life even otherwise, would have to reconcile to yet another day to worry about. Of course, those who mismanage would continue to enjoy security, all paid for by us, just as we are doing for Kasab!
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Source: http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/randomaccess/entry/kasab_from_barbaric_killer_to_state_funded_martyr
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