tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5561829398685858313.post1820661714702262766..comments2023-05-08T04:06:30.276-07:00Comments on Notes of an Itinerant Mendicant: Critical Choices… When the soul of a nation hangs by a threadJason Keith Fernandeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13747657801280747019noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5561829398685858313.post-12136560933916910452010-05-12T01:34:04.276-07:002010-05-12T01:34:04.276-07:00Very interesting article, and fairly balanced, tho...Very interesting article, and fairly balanced, though I have a severe problem with the concept of 'soul' and certainly with the supposed moral insight of films (almost certainly a conflict created for melodrama). <br /><br />I do not have a position vis-a-vis the death sentence. For me the death penalty does not risk India's 'soul' because India doesn't really have a 'soul'; nor am I whole-heartedly in favour of it. <br /><br />However, just to play devil's advocate, something can be said about the death of Kasab being a kind-of public catharsis. For a high-profile case like this to have ended up in any other penalty, given the provisions of the law, might just have been election suicide. Kasab may be easier forgotten once the death penalty has been handed to him. <br /><br />Also, to enforce social death, you'd need the kind of control over the media that can (and will) be misused very quickly. Rather than a social death, I think a re-orientation of energies is needed, from revenge on Kasab to focus on security and better prevention of such acts in the future (because there'll always be someone trying; true vigilance has little to do with loss of innocence or a feeling of comfort with one's neighbours).<br /><br />But I can accept your last paragraph and ignore Kasab and consider the abolition of the death penalty, with Kasab just bringing up the issue. That, for me, is a whole new debate. Given the success of this measure in other countries, I'd support the abolition of the death penalty, especially since the economic advantages of the death penalty (fewer prisoners to support) are offset by the decade we take to carry out executions.<br /><br />Your comments about the media's stupidity and Ujjwal Nikam's appalling rhetoric are spot-on though. He certainly lost all dignity... someone should have reined him in. Made what was a fairly legitimate process look like a show trial.Partho P. Chakrabarttyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08871185704917830992noreply@blogger.com