Punishment for Afzal and Activism

As a child I was taught that every good deed will be applauded and mistakes would be punished. It seems not everybody agrees with me. For last couple of weeks I have been following some discussion regarding the capital punishment given to a 7/11 accused Afzal. One of my juniors in college is trying his best to build support for a presidential pardon. He has many arguments to support his position; however I still fail to see his point. To such people, it seems to be fashionable to paint themselves as a secular social activist and oppose any sane decision. As far the accused is concerned, the fact that three different courts have upheld the sentence proves beyond doubt his guilt. The argument that his wife and child would be left alone should not hold water, since law should not bend for any body based on their relations. I am quoting the funniest argument I heard.

pls take into cognizance the fact tht the intent of the terrorists who attacked our Parliament was not to murder our politicians, but to spread their demands thru an appropriate platform... had they wanted, they could have killed many... and who are u fighting for?? our hon'ble politicians? ? have u never wanted or said "in saalon ko to line main khada kar ke goli maar deni chahiye"??? y so much pain, agony, and hue and cry if somebody gave shape to every indian's idea and thought?? still, this is wrong and not pardonable.. . this is not the right way to take things forward, even if this is what i wanted to do when while protesting against reservations, my 'helpless and innocent' fellows and friends went on hunger strike and were lathi charged at the cue of these very politicians... what came out of it?? out of all the peaceful protests?? we lost tht battle, fell on our face... these politicians are dumb and deaf, and need an explosion to hear wht is being said...
in today's world, when u can sing "khoon chala" frm RDB, and clap when aamir khan murders our defence minister, then how can u not side with Afzal?? dwell more into his demands pls...

Not everybody takes things in the same context. The recent trend of extremisms in some of the movies (Which I also appreciated) seems to have brainwashed many people. They fail to distinguish between the internal corruption and international terrorism. I feel it is most irresponsible and idiotic to think that even if a terrorist goes against the system, he should be glorified as a hero.

Punishment is a necessity in any civilized environment. Are we such a weak state that we can not even punish our guilty. I have always followed the guiding principle of “Naimatma Balheenien Labhya” , or perfection can only be achieved by strong. I guess, India still has a long way to go …

Of Culture, Saraswati and Barkha Dutt

While I don’t usually agree with her, but I do admire Barkha Dutt a lot. She is one of those few journalists who in spite of having their own opinion, still try to present a balanced account of any situation. The other day while reading one of her articles, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that she was a fellow modernite. The article was concerning the recent "Vandemataram controversy" and talked about the presence of religious symbols in the Indian school system.

I distinctly remember the mural of goddess Saraswati, she talked about that was embedded in the wall at the school reception area. In sixth class when I started school we used to pass it 3-4 times every day. It was like an unwritten rule, that anybody who passed it, used to touch the feet of the goddess. Even when the traffic was heavy, the unordered flows of students used to converge to single orderly line then again revert to the previous chaos.

At that young age we needed to jump to be able to touch the second feet of the goddess, but by the eighth class it had almost become a reflex action. There was a joke that any body that touches the parrot on top of the mural would come first in the class. While I never touched the parrot, but I think I can count the times I did not touch the feet on my fingertips, and I must have passed that corridor more than five thousand times.

In those times communalism, secularism were words I wasn't aware of. I think what the school taught us was the respect for the knowledge that we were getting, a respect which was observed by all, irrespective of the religion. About a year back I visited the school. The reflex action is still there, the respect is still there. Is this my religion or my culture?