The Supreme Court's decision to uphold Ajmal Kasab's death sentence has once again brought into focus the death penalty debate in India. Frontline, in its cover story, “A Case against the Death Penalty,†analyzes some gray areas in the debate.
The author, V. Venkatesan, pegged his piece on an appeal made to the president by prominent former judges to commute the death sentences of 13 convicts who, according to the Supreme Court, had been awarded the death penalty erroneously. Mr. Venkatesan argued that there are ambiguities in the interpretation of the clause “rarest of the rare,†which allows for such “errors.â€
The judges in their appeal expressed appr ehension that “executions of persons wrongly sentenced to death will severely undermine the credibility of the criminal justice system and the authority of the state to carry out such punishments in future.â€
Mr. Venkatesan suggests that while abolishing capital punishment deserves serious consideration, the pressing concern is to ensure that people are not being executed due to flaws in the existing criminal justice system. It would not only be a miscarriage of justice for the individuals but not serve the purposes of the state, he said.
As the parliamentary paralysis continued, the editor of Tehelka magazine, Shoma Chaudhury, interviewed the senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader, Arun Jaitley, questioning him about the obstructionist tactics of the B.J.P. The interview clarifies the main opposition party's position on the culpability of the prime minister in the coal scandal and why they refuse to call for a no-confidence motion, which is the constitutional m ethod of seeking to remove the prime minister. Mr. Jaitley said they are not seeking a no-confidence motion because of the government's “tremendous ability to manipulate the political parties†which may end up affording “comfort†to the ruling party, if the vote goes in their favor. He also discussed other strategies open to the B.J.P. if the standoff continues.
Ali Sethi in his column in The New Yorker titled “The Seer of Pakistan†shares an interesting take on the life and works of Saadat Hassan Manto, a prolific Urdu writer who was credited with redefining the short story genre. The popularity of the Amritsar-born writer, who migrated to Pakistan after partition, transgressed boundaries in the subcontinent, and so did his writing. Mr. Ali believes it transgresses time as well, which leads him to revisit Mr. Manto's texts and life “in search of signs of a seer.â€
The author finds in the theater of contemporary Pakistani society, marked by widespr ead social unease, a “hysterical synchronicity†which is reminiscent Mr. Manto's works.
Many of the reigning narratives of Mr.  Manto's time, Mr Ali wrote, “the ‘two-nation theory' that eternally separates India from Pakistan, the Soviet-style Communism of the progressive writers, the pacts of mutual interest between America and Pakistan†have played out in a way that make it seem as if Mr. Manto possessed an otherworldly power to see what the future holds.
In Open Magazine's feature section Aanchal Bansal profiled India's only licensed falconer, Shahid Khan. (What does a falconer do, one wonders, that requires a license? It is a “license to practice falconry, or breed birds of prey in captivity and train them for hunting,†Ms. Bansal wrote.)
According to Khan, falconry is believed to have originated in Mongolia and Iran four millennia ago. Â Man learnt to use falcons and hawks to chase away pests and locusts that would often att ack crops. This gradually developed into a royal sport of game hunting in India; Mughal Emperor Akbar is also said to have practiced falconry.
Unesco awarded this “art form†the “global cultural heritage†status last year, but Mr. Khan “has all but given up, having pulled out of the sport over the past couple of years. He may have a license certifying his skill in this ancient art, but it finds few takers anymore in the modern world.â€
