Our collective conscience, whither it is?

Why hanging a witness?

India has a history of communal harmony with people from different religious backgrounds and culture working together and living like brothers. It has a centuries old tradition of people following different religious ideologies intermingling with each other during festivals.

But the present political scenario of the country is also an example of how an environment of communal harmony turns into that of hatred when some people having vested political interests turn neighbors against neighbours just on the basis of religion.

Since late 80s and early 90s the composite culture of India has been turned upside down. The various attempts by RSS backed organizations to demolish the 16th century Babri Masjid in Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya met its success on 6th December 1992. Before that in 1989, the master charioteer of the Hindutva politics LK Advani led a Rath Yatra across the country from Gujarat’s Somnath to Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya only to be stopped in Bihar’s Samastipur where the young energetic Lalu Prasad took it as an opportunity to assert his identity as a messiah of the Muslims by getting Advani arrested and putting him in a guest house.

But the damage was already done as the rath of Advani with young Narendra Modi on his side left a trail of blood and killings across the country. The rhetorics and communal slogans were enough to enflame communal tensions from wherever the rath passed.

In 1992 after assassination of Rajiv Gandhi when Congress’ Narsimha Rao was Prime Minister the Kalyan Singh led BJP government in Uttar Pradesh assured the Supreme Court that it would do whatever possible to save the Babri Masjid from being demolished only to allow thousands of people led by LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti along with many of the big leaders of Sangh Parivar to bring down the structure. The Congress government at the centre too had a dubious role when it didn’t allow the central forces to be deployed near the 16th century mosque.

The demolition of Babri Masjid led to countrywide communal riots with Hindus and Muslims going after each other’s blood. Bombay (now Mumbai), the financial capital of India was the most affected city by the post Babri demolition riots with approximately a thousand people losing their precious lives in the dance of death which was enacted on the streets of the “maximum city”. Most of the victims were Muslims. According to the Justice Sri Krishna Commission which was set up to enquire about the riots there was an active participation of the Shiv Sena led by the Maratha rightist and regional chauvinist Bal Thackerey in the mayhem which lasted for at least a month.

Justice BN Srikrishna in his unflinching report implicated the Shiv Sena and its leadership in the Mumbai riots of 1992-93. The report squarely blamed Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray, who commanded his loyal Shiv Sainiks to retaliate by organized attacks against Muslims. Justice Srikrishna did not spare the Congress for its “vacillation “,” effete political leadership and for allowing factional feuds to fuel the mayhem that tore Mumbai’s social fabric asunder. Both Sharad Pawar, the then defense minister and his adversary, Sudhakarrao Naik, the chief minister, are hauled up in the report.

On March 12, 1993 when Bombay was not even able to come out of the pain and agony it went through during the orgy of communal violence another tragedy struck the city with 13 explosions rocking the city killing 257 people in a day which came to be known as the “Black Friday”.  Once more the city went into the deep coma of fear and hatred. The roots of the blasts were traced to ISI backed underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and his close associate ‘Tiger Memon’ who claimed that they got the RDX exploded to avenge demolition of the Babri Masjid and the riots which followed the same.

How the case of Yakub Memon was pursued and how he was executed as a lone convict in the 1993 Bombay blasts case is there for everyone to judge as there are many articles written about the same, there have been arguments in his favour or against but one thing which is crystal clear is that by hanging him the Indian state has given a signal that it’s up to it to decide whom to regard as a terrorist and whom not. It can give a state funeral to Bal Thackeray despite having direct evidences regarding his role in fomenting the killings of the Bombay riots but will hang a Yakub who according to many intelligence officers including late B Raman intentionally helped India to solve the case regarding the first ever act of such a large-scale terror bombings.

The state has given a signal that it cannot do anything against Mayaben Kodnani and Babu Bajrangi who led gangs of murderers to kill, rape and main women and children in Gujarat riots but will certainly hang a Yakub Memon or an Afzal Guru just to satisfy this nation’s highly ” selective” , collective conscience. This piece has not been written to defend a Yakub Memon or an Afzal Guru but to make the state understand how equality in delivering justice matters if it really wants to keep all sections of the society happy.  There is a need to understand that this hanging has left many people thinking about whether the Indian state treats all its citizens equally or is willing to give equal justice to them or it just runs on the notion of “our criminal is better than yours”.

In the last I must say there should be no any difference between the terrorists and the ones whose politics is based on terrorizing people no matter which religious ideology they claim to be following. While talking about Muslims in an interview Bal Thackeray held that “They [Muslims] are spreading like a cancer and should be operated on like a cancer. The… country should be saved from the Muslims and the police should support them [Hindu Maha Sangh] in their struggle just like the police in Punjab were sympathetic to the Khalistanis.”

Let us introspect;  was Thackeray worthy of such a grand state funeral? The last rite of Thackeray witnessed the whole city come to a standstill and the government bestowing legitimacy and honour on him. Let us introspect, was Thackeray worthy of such a grand state funeral?

As far as I am concerned I opposed death penalty for Yakub Memon and I will oppose the same for Mayaben Kodnani and Babu Bajrangi as well. But the question which I leave upon the readers to answer is, whether India as a state and its judiciary are willing to pronounce same punishment to Mayaben Kodnani or Babu Bajrangi it handed over to Yakub Memon?