Tag: Karunanidhi

Politics over death penalty

India, Terrorism
3 Comments

It is a shame that some politicians want mercy for criminals whose mercy petitions are rejected by the President. Some months back a Sikh terrorist’s petition was rejected and Akali and Congress politicians from Punjab wanted mercy for him. The terrorist had gone to Supreme Court and wanted his petition to be settled one way or other and after the rejection he has gone to court challenging the dismissal.

Now some politicians from Tamil Nadu want mercy for three Tamil terrorists. It is perverse for Karunanidhi to ask mercy for Rajiv Gandhi’s killers claiming Rajiv Gandhi would have shown mercy under similar circumstances. Rajiv Gandhi did not die alone. Fifteen innocent people, including nine policemen on duty, died in the blast. No thought is given to them. The terrorists have appealed to Madras High Court on the ground of delay in decision. Karunanidhi, Vaiko and other politicians who oppose death penalty had lost elections.

Part of the problem is that India had wrong people as Presidents. The delay in deciding on mercy petitions started with K. R. Narayaran who did not want to reject any mercy petition. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam rejected one mercy petition and after that refused to reject. Pratibha Patil did not want to reject mercy petitions for three years and ten months. Governments of the day did not act against them and MPs did not impeach them.

Delay in deciding mercy petition is not cruel. There is no double punishment. Delayed time is bonus for criminals. They get to live longer. There is no anguish or psychological trauma. There is hope.

Jayalalitha said she has no power to pardon and the criminals can go to President again. Subramanian Swamy said the overwhelming majority of people in Tamil Nadu want the three hanged. There is no question of showing any compassion beyond normal process.

It is strange that High Courts entertain petitions related to death penalty decided by Supreme Court and rejected by President. There should be a ban on such things. There should be only one mercy petition and hanging should take place soon after rejection.

Reservations

General, India
Comments

Right is right even though nobody is right. Wrong is wrong even though everybody is wrong.

If Parliament passes a law that is unjust it does not become right.

In Delhi and many other cities students had opposed reservations. It is likely that in future political parties opposed to reservations will come up.

Karunanidhi has come out against the Supreme Court in the matter of OBC reservations in IIMs and IITs saying three people cannot decide about one billion people. He has threatened agitations.

It is the responsibility of the State Government to maintain law and order. As head of the Government if he does not maintain law and order he abdicates his responsibility. It is wrong for anyone to declare bandh, more so for a Government meant to maintain law and order.

If Karunanidhi can go against the judiciary, so can others. The judgment of Cauvery Waters Tribunal will not be honoured by Karnataka. If Tamilians are discriminated against in Karnataka, the directions of judiciary against discrimination will not be honoured.

Karunanidhi is opposed to Hindi being the sole official language of India even though majority was in favour of it. He said that in that case crow which is ubiquitous be made the national bird instead of peacock.

Backward reservations have kept Tamil Nadu backward. If the population growth rate is low compared to many other states it is because many Tamilians have migrated to other states.

Arjun Singh needs to be sacked. His attempts to dislodge Narasimha Rao failed and he had to leave the party. Manmohan Singh was close to Narasimha Rao. He knows what to do with Arjun Singh but he is not the party president.

If people in favour of reservations come to streets, people opposed to reservations can also come to streets.