In the recent past, there have been a lot of discussion and heated debates going on among the intellectuals and the common men on whether to have death sentence or not. Many of the intellectuals and the media feel that sending a man or woman (worse!) to gallows is an act of uncivilized society and many of the developed countries have done away with death penalty and so a country like India where great souls like Mahatma Gandhi, Adi Sankara, Lord Krishna, Swami Vivekananda were born and promoted non violence and so it is mandatory that India should also eliminate capital punishment totally.
Well, the arguments sound nice and sympathetic since taking another life for the life which has already gone is unfair and unethical. The retired Chief Justice VR Krishna Iyer with his great and extensive judicial acumen now advocating the removal of capital punishment as it is nothing but equally a barbarian act like the murder. It is said that the ‘life’ given by ‘God’ should be taken by him only and not my ‘mortal’ men or faceless state.
Though their arguments sound logic but unfortunately they don’t explain the logic of a right of a killer for taking the life of another man which was also ‘God’ given ‘divine’ life. Impulse, anger, vengeance and revenge are no way could be termed as ‘divine’ qualities. When a man murders another man or woman for whatever provocation, he becomes a murderer by any logic. Who gave him ‘that freedom’ to take away the other life? What should be done to make him realize that what he had done is a cold blooded murder and not a ‘mistake’ by emotion? Suppose as the intellectuals of India feel the crime of murder can be condoned why we should have courts, trials and punishments for much less criminal acts like theft, rape, embezzlement and scams? These, in fact, do not involve any death or taking away of ‘divine’ life.
So in India, since it being a highly philosophical, cultural and spiritual country, we can ask our God men, Holy priests, and spiritual leaders to regularly give lectures to the criminals on the ‘noble’ aspects of Indian philosophy and spirituality and send them back as they would have been reformed by such pep and enlightened talk and discourses. The courts should be there only to specify how many days these criminals have to attend such discourses and go free. There is no need for any arguments and counter arguments because after all ‘punishing’ is ‘wicked’ and forgiving is ‘divine’ once again!
This may likely to create a lot of ‘Mahatmas’ in our nation of cultural superiority. We will once again be called ‘a country where divinity will be respected and any act of corruption or murder will be condoned with a heart of gold’.
From these one can understand very well, today what India needs now is a host of holy men and philosophical leaders to make the people understand that they can do any ‘sin’ and walk away with ‘atonement’ by listening to such discourses and advice! Our nation will again become a unique country in the whole world where criminals can go free after doing the crime with impunity!
If we don’t call this ‘freedom’ what else is ‘real democracy’?
