Dear Mausam,
Sometime back the Supreme court convicted Mohammad Afzal of conspiring the attack on Indian parliament and sentenced him to death. Afzal appealed to the president of india to grant him clemency and is awaiting the President's verdict.
In school during my Civics class, I read about the indian constitution in detail. How the parliament is elected? what's the procedure of its working? and what role each elected member plays? All these questions were answered.
The thing that struck me was, the president of india though revered a lot, had extremely limited powers. One of the only real power the president has is- pardon a convict or reduce the convict's sentence. As far as I remember President Narayanan had pardoned the Russian convicts in the Purrila armsdrop case.Rapist and murderer,Dhananjoy Chatterjee's mercy petition was rejected by Mr. Abdul Kalam. But the situation he faces with Afzal is completely different. The kind of media coverage Afzal has received has been unprecedented. All eyes have been on the president to know what he finally decides. Even though the supreme court awarded him death penalty still the rumour mills have been abuzz about how right the death sentence is.
Politicians from across party lines have been speaking for and against the verdict and as a result the task of Abdul kalam has been made even more tough. There have been arguments that Abdul Kalam will pardon him because Afzal is a muslim or Afzal will not be pardoned as he is a Kashmiri. Such baseless arguments have made sure that this issue will not escape the country's focus.
I think the role of a president is even tougher than that of a judge, coz a judge can take a hard decision and defend himself against public outrage by saying that he went by the evidence as he is bound by the constitution but in case of a president, it is just the president's conviction which matters.
In another court related story, Sanjay Dutt is awaiting judgement for his involvement in 1992 Mumbai Blast case. By the time you read this the verdict would already be out. I just hope and pray that Sanjay Dutt is pardoned. The guy has gone through enough already. I wish he gets his freedom after all these years.
Regards,
Ajj Kaim
6 comments:
>>Such baseless arguments have made sure that this issue will not escape the country's focus.<<
That is so true!!
and even i wish sanjay dutt is freed from it once and for all, i want to watch munnabhai-III IV... :P
so true, i keep wondering what president kalam would say??? must b so very hard!!!
and yeh i wish all the very best for sanjay dutt, poor soul....its been so so many yrs, its high time for him to b left alone!!!!!!!!!
Yes, the president's is a difficult situation for sure, hopefully he will be able to decide what is right for the country. I also believe that the guilty cannot be pardoned. I think rape is equivalent to murder and a death penalty is fair for such a monster. BTW, agree with you on the sanjay dutt case, he has really been thru enuf!
WOW Man - good to hear you remember civics lesson from school!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
hor nahi kuch likhna ?
hey
you are right...it's going to be tough decision for the president...both ways he'll have to face criticism.
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