Whether capital punishment is justified or not is a big controversy. I do not want to enter into that though I am entirely against it. But I feel very sad that when we executed the hapless Dhananjay of Calcutta, the rapist/murderer, we were even more barbaric than the present Chinese Government which, it is reported, removes all the vital organs of the condemned prisoners before being shot dead. In my view, the way in which we hanged Dhananjay is even more cruel than removing the organs of a convict and shooting him dead. We could have executed Dhanjay in a much more humane manner. We could have administered an anesthesia on him, made him unconscious and then injected a lethal poison, and thus executed him without making him suffer pain. It is so done elsewhere in the world. I wrote to the Chief Justice of India before Dhananjay was executed, pleading for a painless and more humane execution of him as somehow or other I had a premonition that he would be executed in spite of all the plea for clemency.
We are a nation which gave birth to the great men like, Budha, Jain and Gandhi, the apostles of non-violence. Yet our republic was one of the first if not the few countries in the democratic world to legalize abortion, butchering of the blossoming child in his own mother's womb. And that too was piloted by Indira Gandhi who herself was a mother. And for a mother, a baby in the womb, I think, could be more emotionally precious than even a baby in her arms, is the most tragic thing. Abortion was legalized as a panacea for the population explosion which in those times was considered to be the reason de genre for all the economic ills of the country. I think it is sheer hypocrisy now to lament about the female foeticide. We encouraged people to do so by glorifying abortion as a method of family planning. Foeticide is nothing but the most heinous form of murder by the willing mother herself of the unborn baby she is bound to protect. Foeticide should be banned absolutely, not alone female foeticide. The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act should be repealed. And who ever practices it should be prosecuted and punished under the provisions of the Indian Penal Code. I believe we become a better democracy and a better society the moment we become less hypocritical and stop shedding crocodile tears about female foeticide alone. Foeticide of male and female, both, should be equally abhorred and absolutely banned.
(Mathew Nedumpara is a corporate lawyer and lives his life shuttling between Mumbai, New Delhi and Cochin) About the AuthorMathews J Nedumpara He is a lawyer...Read Morefirst published:March 08, 2007, 12:20 ISTlast updated:March 08, 2007, 12:20 IST
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While on a morning walk in Delhi today, I came across a buffalo. It was pulling a cart full of building materials. The cart driver was making the buffalo run faster by simultaneously twisting its tail as also by beating. The previous day I had been to the market where I found a goat brought for slaughtering. Feeling sympathy for it, I made a request to the butcher to cut its throat by a single axing instead of cutting a little of the throat and allowing the animal to bleed and suffer a painful death, remaining conscious for, may be for 20 to 30 minutes. The butcher told me, it cannot be done as it is against his religious convictions. I tried to reason with him telling that in modern slaughter houses, the animal is first made unconscious by stunning it and then its throat is slit. In that event, the animal has a sudden painless death. What made me feel sad is that, in India, even among animals, entirely unequal treatment is meted out. We are a great people when we protect our cows. But I do not know what to call about us when we do not pay scant respect of other mammals, closely related. Not only do we practice this dual policy with animals, but also with our own citizens.
Whether capital punishment is justified or not is a big controversy. I do not want to enter into that though I am entirely against it. But I feel very sad that when we executed the hapless Dhananjay of Calcutta, the rapist/murderer, we were even more barbaric than the present Chinese Government which, it is reported, removes all the vital organs of the condemned prisoners before being shot dead. In my view, the way in which we hanged Dhananjay is even more cruel than removing the organs of a convict and shooting him dead. We could have executed Dhanjay in a much more humane manner. We could have administered an anesthesia on him, made him unconscious and then injected a lethal poison, and thus executed him without making him suffer pain. It is so done elsewhere in the world. I wrote to the Chief Justice of India before Dhananjay was executed, pleading for a painless and more humane execution of him as somehow or other I had a premonition that he would be executed in spite of all the plea for clemency.
We are a nation which gave birth to the great men like, Budha, Jain and Gandhi, the apostles of non-violence. Yet our republic was one of the first if not the few countries in the democratic world to legalize abortion, butchering of the blossoming child in his own mother's womb. And that too was piloted by Indira Gandhi who herself was a mother. And for a mother, a baby in the womb, I think, could be more emotionally precious than even a baby in her arms, is the most tragic thing. Abortion was legalized as a panacea for the population explosion which in those times was considered to be the reason de genre for all the economic ills of the country. I think it is sheer hypocrisy now to lament about the female foeticide. We encouraged people to do so by glorifying abortion as a method of family planning. Foeticide is nothing but the most heinous form of murder by the willing mother herself of the unborn baby she is bound to protect. Foeticide should be banned absolutely, not alone female foeticide. The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act should be repealed. And who ever practices it should be prosecuted and punished under the provisions of the Indian Penal Code. I believe we become a better democracy and a better society the moment we become less hypocritical and stop shedding crocodile tears about female foeticide alone. Foeticide of male and female, both, should be equally abhorred and absolutely banned.
(Mathew Nedumpara is a corporate lawyer and lives his life shuttling between Mumbai, New Delhi and Cochin)
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