Capital punishment has always been disproportionately used against minorities and Dalits. It acts as another tool of the state for intimidation and harassment.
By legalising death penalty in cases related to the rape of children below 12, the government has killed the discourse on the more serious questions of justice delivery, such as the body of a woman being used as a communal battleground. It is sad that people are falling for this government gimmick.
The eight-year-old’s rape in Kathua was a hate crime, a purely communal act and should be seen as such. The government should have denounced the act using the strongest of words.
Our demand was not centred around the severity of judgement but on the certainty of it. It was about the patronage and impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators in such cases. It was about the support the culprits received, as was visible in the march that was organised in favour of the accused and in which several politicians also participated.
Death sentence serves no purpose in preventing the occurrence of any crime. The statistics speak for themselves. It’s only an act of organised vengeance. Most of the time, it’s used against people from underprivileged backgrounds who cannot afford to influence the justice delivery system.
Right from the police station during the time of the registration of an FIR, to the bar where they are unable to get the services of the finest of attorneys, to the bench where they don’t have the benefit of having a familiar subservient judge, the road to justice is an uphill task for minorities and Dalits.
It’s also a fact that the maxim ‘innocent until proven guilty’ turns on its head when the charges are levelled against minorities in particular, and judgement is inspired by an underlying collective mood.
Also, with cases dragging on for years in the trial stage, the stigma has to borne by the entire family of the accused.
This is the reason why we are in principle against capital punishment. Whether it be for rapes or lynching (advocated under MASUKA) or any other crime. Whether it be for the perpetrators and organisers of genocide like Babu Bajrangis and their masters, or for persons found guilty of violating national security.
Anthropology aside, the death penalty even fails to instil a notion of safety and security. Capital punishment does nothing to prevent a girl under 12 who is walking alone from being molested, it does nothing for grown-up women, and it doesn’t keep a person eating chicken in a train from being lynched under the suspicion of consuming beef.
No justice system is complete if the system doesn’t take a corrective shift to restore public confidence in its dying apparatus.
Justice is not just limited to retribution as some believe. We are not man-eaters. More often, it’s about giving up on our prejudices and patriarchal mindsets. Are we ready to contribute?