Mohammed Afzal- Should he be hanged???

There is a wide spread debate in the media about whether Mohammed AFZAL- who was given death sentence by SC for conpiring in Parliament attack should be hanged or not...

Intellectuals, Politicians, common man have all voiced their opinions on this...People who advocate clemency for Afzal include Ghulam Nabi Azad, Medha Patkar, Arundati Roy
and others...

The larger question here is whther Death penalty should be abolished or not...European
countries have banned it while others advocate death penalty for rarest of rarest cases
including India, US...This issue needs to be thouroughly reviewd and it takes time...But to
link this issue with Afzal case is condemable and hardly the way to go...

The argument put forth by many is that diplomacy between India and Pakistan will suffer if
Afzal is hanged...

If Afzal is given clelemncy it will have negative impact on the morale of the army who
pledge their lives for the security of the common man...Terrorists who commit heinous crime
in the name of AZADI will get a boost if he is pardoned...They will be under the impresion
that they could go scott free inspite of commiting such barbaric acts...

Some intellectuals have questioned the judgement of the Supreme court itself...Afzal case
has been heard 3 times and all have awarded death sentence...In an era where Corruption is
rooted in all areas, Supreme court has largely remained free of this stigma...Questioning
the credibility of the judgement amounts to showing scant respect to the highest judicial body in India...

Our president in the larger interests of our nation should not give clemency. Law ministry should initiate a nationwide debate on whther death penalty should be abolished or not and should not link this with AFZAL case...