ON THE HANGING OF YAQUB

MEMON
Monday 31 August 2015, by Humra Quraishi

MUSINGS
The following lines were written just before Yaqub Memons execution. It is
being published now as its contents have not lost their validity.
Why am I writing for the second consecutive week on Yaqub Memon?
Perhaps, because the more Im hearing television debates and those fiercely
charged discussions out there in the open on his proposed hanging, I feel its
relevant to focus on those thoughts hitting ever so persistently.
Foremost, why is it that in the midst of our supposed developed state we are
dragging this entire debate, for and against the hanging, along the HinduMuslim format. After all, he is a human being who deserves justice. Nothing
but justice.
Why is it that Right-wing brigades are crying hoarse, as though awaiting for
that proposed hanging to take place... Why that underlying excitement, that
unhidden enthusiasm, that zest to see Yaqub Menon executed ...hanged to
death! These reactions are disturbing.
In these last few days I have been also hearing many throwing up query after
query, along the strainwhy is it that only some or few are punished;
other culprits who have committed equally brutal crimes/planned
pogroms/encoun-ters are left untouched! Why these apparent doublestandards? Why these apparent biases and discriminations? After all, you
have a whole list of crime-doers-cum-rioters-cum-killers-cum-destroyers,
accused in the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition-cum-rioting and as well as in the
2002 Gujarat pogrom, yet none them hanged! Why is it that the likes of Babu
Bajrangis and Maya Kodnanis and Amit Shahs are not severely punished!
This when these characters more than terrorised a section of the population
and with that dragged along dents and destruction of the worst kind.

Another aspect which looms large is what remains of a man once you
imprison him for life, languishing he sits in solitary confinement? With that,
he is anyway half dead! Nothing much remains of him! Hanging him could be
a mere formality or that formality ridden gesture which should or could be
avoided. Read volumes authored by several of the jailed and their accounts
are un-nerving. The imprisoned, perhaps, die a thousand deaths every single
day.
Read senior journalist Iftikhar Gilanis My Days in Prison (Penguin), lawyer
activist Nandita Haksars Framing Geelani, Hanging AfzalPatriotism in The
Time of Terror(Bibliophile South Asia), Kashmiri woman activist, Zamarud
Habibs Prisoner No 100My nights and days in an Indian Prison (Zubaan),
Mufti Qayyums recently published book, I am a Mufti and I Am Not
Terrorist (Jamiat Ulema).
There are some other disturbing underlying facts and factorswhy is it that
53 per cent of the total prison population in the country is that of Dalits and
Tribals and Muslims! This does not tally with their overall population
percentage.
And the picture gets compounded as the jails are over-stuffed with
undertrials. Roughly put, 75 per cent of the jailed population of the country
are undertrials... Also, in these recent years I have been meeting parents of
young men who had been picked up by cops/agencies, for interrogation and
then disappeared. Never to return. I have met parents from Malegaon and
Hyderabad and Ahmedabad and from villages of Rajasthan whose sons have
been illegally picked up by the local police. The Kashmir Valley has a long list
of 10,000 disappeared young men.
In fact, the late film-maker Shubhradeep Chakravortys documentary, After
The Storm,focuses on several young Muslim men who had been sitting jailed
with terror charges till finally acquitted from the various courts. Acquitted but
they are ruinedruined reputations and health and bitter hopelessness
around.
If you were to read these two publicationsCommunal Riots: The State and
Law in India, edited by Iqbal Ansari and published by the Institute of
Objective Studies, and Omar Khalidis Khaki and the Ethnic Violence (Three

Essays Collective), facts hit. To quote Khalidi, Most of the intelligence

agencies and paramilitary forces in India do not mirror the diversity of the
national population ...for example in 1993 the Union Minister of State for
Home confirmed that there has not been a single Muslim in RAW (Research
and Analysis Wing) and IB (Intelligence Bureau) personnel ....Much the same
is the story in the para-military forces. Assam Rifles, Indias oldest
paramilitary force is composed primarily of Gurkhasboth foreign Nepalis
and domiciled. Even though Assam is nearly 30 per cent Muslims, few
Muslims are found in the Assam Rifles ...
Finally, focusing once again on the very cruxIf the terrorist takes life, then
should the state come down to his level and also indulge in the same? Tit for
tat! Killing for killings! Brutality for brutalities! Death for deaths! With that,
whats the difference between the civilised state and a wayward citizen?
Can there be a superior way out of handling those striking terror? A more
civilised way out? Perhaps, the first step in that direction would be to halt
executions. No more hangings. For if even one innocent is hanged wed have
to hang our heads in shame.
Instead of hanging the accused make, him till parched fields of the
malnourished dying farmers and with that save lives and livelihoods.