CHENNAI: It was woman power, articulated through concerted and dedicated efforts, that earned a reprieve for the three convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, who would have otherwise been led to the gallows this Friday. While it needs to be seen if a Presidential pardon would come the way of G Perarivalan, Santhan and Murugan to save them from the noose, a few women played pivotal roles in turning the tide of popular support in favour of a campaign that has been on for at least 13 years. Ever since the designated TADA court pronounced all the 26 persons, who faced trial in the case, guilty and handed out death sentence to them in 1998, Perarivalan’s mother Arputhammal has been campaigning for her son’s release, saying that he was innocent and wrongly implicated in the case. But the poignancy of a mother’s anguish captured popular imagination, earning widespread empathy for her, after another woman, Poonkuzhali, wrote a Tamil book, ‘Thodarum Thavipu’ (Continuing Agony), which brought to light Arputhammal’s helplessness and her never say die spirit to fight for her son’s life.That book was, however, just one of the tools employed in the campaign to get a pardon for Perarivalan, which was carried out with gusto at various forums by Tamil groups and many prominent persons in the social, legal, political and cultural arena after the Supreme Court confirmed the death sentence on four persons - one of them Nalini - in 1999. Since then, at every stage, when the mercy plea came up before the Governor or the President, several persons and groups raised a plethora of legal issues to highlight that Perarivalan was wrongly implicated in the case and sought clemency.But the arguments put forth through the campaign never cut ice with those empowered to grand pardon and the three convicts were informed of the President rejecting their clemency petition on August 26, when the authorities also fixed the date for hanging as September 9.It was then, three women lawyers, Sujatha, Angayarkanni and Vadivambal, sat on a fast inside the Madras High Court premises on August 26, giving an additional momentum and a new direction to that movement. The next day, the fast venue was shifted to a private premises in Koyambedu, drawing people from all walks of life. Even as the indefinite fast was on with more people pledging their support to the campaign, a 21-year-old girl, Senkodi, from Kanchee-puram set herself ablaze on August 28, leaving behind a suicide note saying that she hoped that her sacrifice would save the three from the noose. With that touching a raw nerve in the collective consciousness of the people, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa moved a resolution in the State Assembly on August 30, seeking a reconsideration of the mercy plea by the President. The same day, the High Court stayed the hanging by eight weeks. To put it otherwise, all those women - Arputhammal, Poonkuzhali, Sujatha, Kayalvizhi, Vadivambal, Senkodi and Jayalalithaa - were instrumental in the three convicts getting a breather. And now it is in the hands of another woman, President Pratibha Patil, or one more woman, Sonia Gandhi, the Congress president, to take the final call.
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