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Activists give clarion call to
scrap death penalty
WSN Bureau
 CHANDIGARH: Ever
since an inspired gathering of human rights activists and lawyers in
Rome decided to observe October 10 every year as a day dedicated to
work for scrapping the Death Penalty from statutes across the world,
the movement against capital punishment has acquired an aggressive
edge, thanks to the lead provided by Lawyers for Human Rights
International.
The LHRI
convened a seminar this October 10 at the Law Bhawan in Chandigarh
where many well known experts of jurisprudence, social activists,
retired judges and lawyers presented clinching arguments to convert
the capital punishment clauses in life term ones.
The seminar
witnessed participation by eminent people including retired Justice
KS Grewal (retd), Justice Ajit Singh Bains (retd), Advocate Amar
Singh Chahal, Navkiran Singh, Gurinderpal Bhatia, well known social
activist Dr Usha Ramanathan and others who gave a clarion call to
the people to press for converting Section 303 sending people to the
gallows into a life term clause, and thus bring India at par with
the rest of the civilised world.
Justice Grewal
recalled that the entire celebrated reign of Maharaja Ranjit Singh
did not see a single death penalty. He said there was more sense in
using the money from heavy fines to help the family of the victim
which had lost a life rather than sending one more to the gallows.
Justice Grewal said in his 21 years of judicial career, he neither
sent anyone to the death row, nor confirmed any death sentence as a
High Court judge.
Dr Ramanathan
made some sterling points saying the years of Sikh aspirational
movement in Punjab since 1980 saw the gradual chipping away at the
rights available under democracy. "You cannot even protest against
the grievances you are made to suffer without first seeking the
permission of the state to protest," she said.
Civil norms are
continuously being overshadowed by establishment's efforts to
control more and more spheres of our lives. She said
Punjab
has seen the phase when security forces killed Sikh youth with
impunity, the regime slapped TADA and POTA, and police believed it
was par for the course to torture relatives if they could not find
who they were looking for.
"Which part of
which statute gives the state the right to fire and kill people
asking for their rights, torturing them, sentencing them to death?"
Dr Ramanathan asked, her comments coinciding with the Sikh
community's efforts to commemorate the martyrdom of Bhai Sukha andd
Bhai Jinda across the world.
She elaborated
how Indian citizens were still to experience the glow of bare
minimum democratic norms. The state still considers its people as
"subjects" much like the situation prevailing before 1947, and this
colonial mindset has become deeprooted among our politicians and
pillars of the state.
She said the
inclusion of the capital punishment in the statute books opens also
the way for fake encounters as the police uses the excuse of
breakdown of the judicial system that it claims lets off the
'terrorist', and takes upon itself to dish out justice.
She said it was
time that every encounter be characterised as a murder and followed
through as such, bringing thewrath of the law on the guilty police
officials.
Among the kin of
people on the death row, the 21-year-old grand daughter Pallavi
spoke about her grandad Piara Singh, 82 years of age and unable to
see properly, her poignant words seeming enough of an argument to
convince any stoneheart.
It is pertinent
to mention that 86 countries have abolished death penalty
altogether, 11 countries have abolished capital punishment for
ordinary crimes, 24 countries have not abolished from the statute,
but have not carried out any execution for more than a decade.
However,
India is
one of the 76 countries that retain the provision of death penalty.
LHRI general
secretary Navkiran Singh and lawyers Gurinderpal Singh Bhatia and
Amar Singh Chahal said efforts were being made to launch a major
initiative for scrapping the death penalty when the UN meets for a
conclave in February next year.
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Campaign against
death penalty launched
 The Khalsa
Action Committee has launched a Signature campaign against the death
penalty to mark the occasion of World Day against the Death Penalty.
Party activists camped at the entrance gate of Darbar Sahib for
three hours to draw people’s attention and create awareness against
the death penalty.
Signatories kept
on pouring till late afternoon to sign the form addressed to the
President of India, appealing to abolish the death penalty in Indian
in general and commuting of death sentence of Prof Devinder Pal
Singh Bhullar, who is on death row.
The petition
pointed out that Prof Bhullar deserves a compassionate approach
because the judgment against him was a travesty of norms of criminal
jurisprudence as the presiding judge has acquitted him and the ones
who have convicted him have done so on the basis of a confession
extracted under duress while he was in police custody.
Kanwarpal Singh,
the organizer of the campaign said death penalty was an inhumane way
to punish people. He favoured commutation of death sentence to life
imprisonment to one and all on humanitarian grounds.
Prominent
amongst those who were present includes Bhai Narien Singh, Sarbjit
Singh Ghuman, Baldev Singh Ajnala, Kuldeep Singh, Balwant Singh
Gopala.
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14
October 2009
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