Close on the heels of BJP leader and actor Shatrughan Sinha signing a petition to the President against Yakub Memon’s execution, the party’s general secretary Varun Gandhi took a position against the death penalty in an article published in a weekly news magazine.
Gandhi, however, clarified that the article was not connected with the Memon hanging and was just a point of view on the larger debate about capital punishment across the globe. “The write up has tried to shed some light on the historicity of death penalty,” he told HT.
Memon's execution has sparked a debate over death penalty with prominent opposition leaders joining activists in calling for a ban and the government saying it cannot afford to take the leap at present.
Writers and opinion makers who spoke out against the noose mainly said the state should not be a party to taking precious lives and that death is never a deterrent for terrorists.
A large section of the media stuck to the argument that it was time for India to rethink the capital punishment laws.
More than 160 countries have abolished the death penalty in law or in practice and 98 of those have abolished it altogether. India is one of the 58 countries which still hands out the death penalty, according to a UN reports. Do you think it's time we hold a larger debate on capital punishment?
{{/usCountry}}More than 160 countries have abolished the death penalty in law or in practice and 98 of those have abolished it altogether. India is one of the 58 countries which still hands out the death penalty, according to a UN reports. Do you think it's time we hold a larger debate on capital punishment?
{{/usCountry}}Varun Gandhi against death penalty, stirs row over Memon comment