{"id":6473,"date":"2013-02-11T06:00:29","date_gmt":"2013-02-11T05:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/socialism.in\/?p=6473"},"modified":"2013-02-11T06:00:30","modified_gmt":"2013-02-11T05:00:30","slug":"some-questions-for-comrade-karat-on-the-killing-of-afzal-guru-satya-sivaraman-and-manisha-sethi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.socialism.in\/?p=6473","title":{"rendered":"Some questions for comrade Karat on the killing of Afzal Guru: Satya Sivaraman and Manisha Sethi"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SYAF\"<\/a>The following article appeared in the Kafila website<\/a>. The article concerns the statement of the Sitaram Yechury following the recent unjust hanging of Afzal Guru<\/a> at Tihar jail in Delhi.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

While it was sickening to see the grand celebration of this unjust act by the right wing and communal elements, but what was equally despicable was the statement of Sitaram Yechury<\/a> who said \u201cI think, the law of the land with all its provisions has finally been completed as far as the Afzal Guru case and the attack on the Indian Parliament is concerned. The issue which had been lingering for the past 11 years has finally completed its due course.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The most insensitive statement coming from a member of the Polit Bureau of CPI (M) further proves that this so-called “Communist” party which also tags itself as “Marxist”, is nothing but a right wing Social Democratic party.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Apart from the fact that Afzal Guru was not given a fair trial and that the sentence was slapped on the basis of highly suspect “circumstantial” evidence, and the execution was carried out in such a conspiratorial manner, undoubtedly goes to show that the Congress trying to bolster its pitiful image, took this very sectarian and “POLITICAL” decision.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The very judgement which sentenced Afzal said that he was given the death penalty to satisfy the collective conscience of the nation, which itself was a very erroneous and condemnable, and now in the manner in which he has been put down smacks nothing but a decision to gain political mileage in the coming 2014 elections (or even earlier).<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The fight for the abolition of the Death Penalty must be intensified now. All the political pointers indicate that Pranab Mukherjee<\/a>; the man in a hurry is likely to be over-active in file clearances. The New Socialist Alternative<\/strong> (CWI-India), Tamil Solidarity<\/a> along with innumerable organisations campaigning for the abolition of the death penalty must redouble our efforts to get this draconian Death Penalty provision repealed.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Editors<\/span><\/em><\/strong>
\n Socialism.in<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Some questions for comrade Karat on the killing of Afzal Guru: Satya Sivaraman and Manisha\u00a0Sethi<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Shri Prakash Karat,<\/span><\/strong>
\n General Secretary,<\/span><\/strong>
\n Communist Party of India (Marxist)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Dear Comrade,<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Afzal Guru was hanged yesterday in utter secrecy, denied in his last moments the right to meet his wife and children one final time. Denied to him also was the ultimate judicial resort, due to every condemned convict after his\/her mercy petition has been rejected.<\/span><\/p>\n

The entire legal proceedings against Afzal were shot through with contradictions, fabrications and travesties of legal procedure. The Supreme Court bench that finally sentenced him to death did so to \u2018appease the national conscience\u2019 despite inadequate evidence of his role in the Parliament attack case. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And yet this is what your colleague in the Polit Bureau Sitaram Yechury had to say to the media on this issue,\u00a0\u201cI think, the law of the land with all its provisions has finally been completed as far as the Afzal Guru case and the attack on the Indian Parliament is concerned. The issue which had been lingering for the past 11 years has finally completed its due course.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018Law of the land\u2019 has \u2018completed its due course\u2019? Is this the official stand of the CPI(M) \u00a0on the Afzal Guru case? Or is it just Com. Yechury trying to \u2018appease the national conscience\u2019 and joining the UPA in harnessing the \u2018Hindu vote\u2019?<\/span><\/p>\n

Surely you and your colleagues in the Polit Bureau have heard that Afzal was unrepresented from the time of his arrest till he made his alleged \u2018confession? You may have also perhaps heard of the letter that Afzal wrote to the Judge pleading he had no faith in the lawyer appointed for him by the Court, asking to be represented by any from a list of four lawyers he named. The Court records show that two of these lawyers refused to represent him but there is no information whether the other two on the list were even ever asked.<\/span><\/p>\n

A\u00a0lawyer, who had never met Afzal, admitted documents in court incriminating him. Or has your Polit Bureau been watching too many telecasts of his \u2018confession\u2019 –\u00a0 considered inadmissible in any court of law \u2013 as damning evidence of his guilt?<\/span><\/p>\n

But never mind. Lack of legal representation for your Party does not seem too major an obstacle in implementing the \u2018due course of law\u2019. When elections are looming on the horizon, and your Party\u2019s mass base is dwindling, a little injustice \u2013 like the murder of an innocent man- does not matter of course.<\/span><\/p>\n

If the Congress is fast becoming the B Team of the communal Hindutva brigade should the CPI (M) try to become the C Team? Has your Party learnt nothing from the defeats it has suffered due to similar unprincipled stands it has taken in the past? Are we being completely delusional in expecting a Party named with grand terms like \u2018Communist\u2019 and \u2018Marxist\u2019 to take a stand different from that of political formations taking the nation fast forward towards all out Fascism?<\/span><\/p>\n

Sincerely,<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Satya Sivaraman<\/span><\/strong>
\n Manisha Sethi<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following article appeared in the Kafila website. The article concerns the statement of the Sitaram Yechury following the recent…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":6475,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kashmir","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialism.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialism.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialism.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialism.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialism.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6473"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialism.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6483,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialism.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6473\/revisions\/6483"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialism.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialism.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialism.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialism.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}