New Delhi: Just three days after 1993 Mumbai blasts convict Yakub Memon was hanged to death, the Bharatiya Janata Party has now said that it is willing to join the debate on death penalty. Memon's execution has once again revived the demand to abolish death sentence.
While addressing a press conference, Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday said, "We welcome a debate on death penalty. Yakub Memon's conviction was per existing laws, and is separate from the larger debate."
This comes even as its own party MP from Sultanpur Varun Gandhi backed the demand for abolition of death penalty. In an article in the Outlook magazine, Varun said death sentence only legalises vengeance and ought to be done away with. He argued that death penalty has historically enabled tyranny and that its utility of is proving to be anachronistic.
Earlier, the BJP hit out at Congress leaders Shashi Tharoor and Digvijaya Singh for opposing death penalty.
Congress leader Shashi Tharoor had tweeted that he was saddened by the news that the government hanged a human being. While he added that he was not commenting on the merits of a specific case, like Memon’s, he said that he was against the concept of death sentence.
Kerala Chief Minister Oomen Chandy also opposed death penalty and said, "Personally, I am against the death penalty. Because spending time in prison, being jailed, is in itself a big punishment, There should be an open debate on the issue," he said.
Terming the execution of Yakub as "miscarriage of justice", CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury had said that India should join other nations and scrap the death penalty.
The government had earlier said that there was no proposal to scrap the maximum punishment, adding that there was need for a wider consultation over the issue.
Memon was executed early on July 30 on his 53rd birthday after he exhausted all legal options to appeal against his death penalty.
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