(This article was written immediately after the hanging of Ajmal Kasab)
Hang ‘em too
Wednesday morning (21.11.2012)
everyone woke up to the news of famed terrorist Ajmal Kasab who was hung to
death in Yerawada prison on the outskirts of the commercial capital of India,
Mumbai.
Experts had their say on national
television and everyone was giving comments left and right, the party that
hanged him was being criticized for delays, the accused hit back the accusers
with misdemeanors during their rule. New Johnnie’s on the block not willing to
sacrifice their share of prime time proposed there should have been a public
spectacle of the hanging, wonder where that kind of democracy will lead democratic
nations.
Needless to say a hanging that should have been seen as a just end to a horrible crime was scattered and scribbled all over the morning prime time space for anyone and everyone who was educated enough to have a go, why even the so called educated ones did not stop to think before commenting. In this national media circus the root causes were not debated. Why did a strapping young lad of twenty one choose this path fully knowing that his life would be extinct in quick time?
Needless to say a hanging that should have been seen as a just end to a horrible crime was scattered and scribbled all over the morning prime time space for anyone and everyone who was educated enough to have a go, why even the so called educated ones did not stop to think before commenting. In this national media circus the root causes were not debated. Why did a strapping young lad of twenty one choose this path fully knowing that his life would be extinct in quick time?
Let’s go back to Kasab’s
confession where he tells the world on why and how he got caught into this act
of violence. This boy was an uneducated chap in the village from a pitiful poor
family where the father was willing to sell his son for money. This is the bane
of third world, underdeveloped and developing nations where poverty is rampant
and the government of the day has failed to have everybody included in their so
called growth story. Developmental projects of the rulers is so steeped in
corruption that programmes meant for the poor are hijacked by the middle men
and politicians widening the gap between the have and have not’s.
Girl child is a taboo in such medieval thinking societies where the birth of girl child is often met with despair and mourning. Little wonder therefore that the surviving girl child is not fed or educated properly and the chance of this girl child turning into a reformed mother vanishes. Religious fanatics and fundamentals run amok in such situations which are tailor made for their existence. They spread their ill-conceived and half-baked doctrines and force it down the throat of these gullible creatures.
Uneducated fathers sell an extra child to feed the family. A chance to be rich churns in the mind of such people who without thinking of the consequences gladly volunteer to such acts of destruction if they are promised rewards for the family. After all isn’t it better to have one sufferer rather than an entire family? One sacrifices his all for the chance to see his loved ones breathe easy. Thus we have a huge breeding ground, a factory where we manufacture their kind. This heady mix of religion, poverty, lack of education and unemployment and progress is the manure which helps reap people like Kasab.
Hanging Kasab is therefore missing the woods for the tree. Who will hang these hangmen (political leaders without distinction), the actual culprits who through their administrative ignorance and intentionally lop sided policies sow the seeds for such breeding apparatus. Had Kasab’s father been educated, or had his mother seen the inside of a school, had his father adhered to family planning norms and not gladly took all that the lord showered on him, Kasab would have gone to school, had a moderate upbringing and escaped the hangman’s noose.
Girl child is a taboo in such medieval thinking societies where the birth of girl child is often met with despair and mourning. Little wonder therefore that the surviving girl child is not fed or educated properly and the chance of this girl child turning into a reformed mother vanishes. Religious fanatics and fundamentals run amok in such situations which are tailor made for their existence. They spread their ill-conceived and half-baked doctrines and force it down the throat of these gullible creatures.
Uneducated fathers sell an extra child to feed the family. A chance to be rich churns in the mind of such people who without thinking of the consequences gladly volunteer to such acts of destruction if they are promised rewards for the family. After all isn’t it better to have one sufferer rather than an entire family? One sacrifices his all for the chance to see his loved ones breathe easy. Thus we have a huge breeding ground, a factory where we manufacture their kind. This heady mix of religion, poverty, lack of education and unemployment and progress is the manure which helps reap people like Kasab.
Hanging Kasab is therefore missing the woods for the tree. Who will hang these hangmen (political leaders without distinction), the actual culprits who through their administrative ignorance and intentionally lop sided policies sow the seeds for such breeding apparatus. Had Kasab’s father been educated, or had his mother seen the inside of a school, had his father adhered to family planning norms and not gladly took all that the lord showered on him, Kasab would have gone to school, had a moderate upbringing and escaped the hangman’s noose.
Till such time, countries do not
bring employment generation programmes, till such time social engineered
schemes for the upliftment of the girl child is not implemented, till we do not
educate the girl child, till such time education is not made compulsory in
schools, till such time as there is an incentive for completing college, till
such time we do not implement vocational and job oriented training for the less
studious, till such time there will be empty bellies and till such time the
bane of religious fundamentalism shines on our chest like a medal on the chest
of a proud soldier, there will be more Kasab’s and many more killings and
executions all around the world.
While there is no sympathy for Kasab, the question that begs to be answered is, what about the guys who through self-centered and inconsequential developmental schemes brought this on him?
While there is no sympathy for Kasab, the question that begs to be answered is, what about the guys who through self-centered and inconsequential developmental schemes brought this on him?
Robin Varghese
Mail to: robin_vargh@yahoo.com
(This article appeared in the
Daily Tribune, Bahrain dated 26th November 2012)
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