Mercy beau-coup?

Why do you think the highest authorities in a country come out to support an ordinary citizen who happens to be a farmer who ambled across in drunken stupor to the other side of the border?

On what basis is India defending Sarabjit Singh who has been convicted by the Supreme Court of Pakistan for terrorist activities? Does it not strike a discordant note that an Indian has been sentenced to death by hanging for detonating bombs five times, resulting in deaths and injuries, and has confessed to being a RAW agent, and yet the External Affairs Ministry comes into the picture to rescue him? Even more strange is the fact that top Pakistani officials are engaging in a dialogue on the subject.

Is this anywhere near a confidence building measure that it is being touted as? Or is there some behind-the-scenes hush-hush going on? After all, the Sikhs are an enraged lot following the Nanavati Report on the 1984 riots, so it suits the Indian government to help a poor farmer from Bhikhiwind in Amritsar to act as a temporary salve and also to dilute the domestic issue. Pakistan will perhaps reciprocate for ulterior motives, which might be done covertly. A Kashmiri separatist organisation has already appealed for Sarabjit’s clemency in return for the release of one of their men held in an Indian prison.

Is this the precedent we want to set? Despite the prime minister’s office earlier issuing a statement saying, “If Sarabjit is really a spy, then we get into a tricky business of handing back and forth spies”, the External affairs minister Natwar Singh discussed the matter with the Pakistan high commissioner in India. One report revealed, “MEA spokesman Navtej Sarna told reporters that Mr Singh reiterated the fact that this was a humanitarian matter and also that there was a strong public sentiment in India for sparing the life of the individual.”

How often have you heard a government official acting as courier boy for strong public sentiment?

Why has actor Shahrukh Khan joined this bandwagon? Only because he acted in the film ‘Veer Zaara’ where an innocent was implicated, does it give him the right to plead, “He has already served 15 years in prison and purely on humanitarian grounds we appeal for his release”?

No, sir, you cannot. There are several families of POWs too waiting for news of their fathers, brothers, and sons. Appeal for them. There are families of militants who also have hearts and believe members of their family have been wrongfully arrested on trumped up charges. Would you appeal on their behalf?

What do we know about Sarabjit that we are ready to behave like beggars asking for mercy? The very word mercy means there is guilt. Are we ready to accept that? It must be noted that an ordinary family in Amritsar is blackmailing the whole country. This cannot be possible unless there is some backing. Where is it coming from?

Sarabjit’s sister, Dalbir Kaur, has been in histrionic mode, taking away any sympathy one ought to feel purely at the human level. She has the gumption to state, “Both Delhi and Islamabad should know that Sarabjit will not be the only one who will be hanged. We have prepared five nooses at home, and we will commit mass suicide.” The two countries are being held to ransom.

There is the Wagah Border appeal, ‘havans’ are being conducted to propitiate the gods, children are holding placards that ask, “Musarf uncle release our uncle Sarbjit”. I think this qualifies as child abuse. You cannot use children unaware of the goings-on as pawns. And please let us not hear this rubbish about how an Indian citizen is being persecuted in Pakistan and it is our duty to save him. Indian citizens go through hell every day. There are hundreds of cases of innocent people being arrested, cases that are pending for more than 15 years without even being heard in our own courts, women who are raped in police stations and jails.

It has become trendy to take up these cross-border causes. It is clearly political expediency and superficial bonhomie. And the ordinary people should see through the game.

We need to look at some of the important points that could be raised were we not so taken up with this thriving ‘humanitarian’ business.

If it is indeed a case of mistaken identity and the real culprit is ‘Manjeet Singh’, then where is he? Has Pakistan done away with him? In that event, the Indian government should try and locate Manjeet Singh’s family and appeal on his behalf. Shahrukh Khan may join in too.

We are turning out to be a completely naïve nation if we have RAW agents of this calibre who work for 36,000 bucks (come on, guys, raise the salaries at least) and hire squealers. We are also sweetly transparent in not denying the possibility of RAW agents operating there. Has it not struck anyone as unusual? The ISI will never accept that they have their men walking around here who just happened to cross over by mistake (they won’t be able to use the drunken stupor argument, since their Islamic fundos will rise in another sort of revolt).

Sarabjit said he went to Pakistan 17 times; that seems to be a lot of alcohol. Even if he was forced to confess, we are still left with the confusion over whether espionage work entails terrorist activities as well. As an Indian citizen I wish to know. One thought that this country was not mixed up in such activities; we only knew that the ISI was actively involved.

Sarabjit went missing in August 1990. A year later when he wrote them a letter, his family learnt that he was in a Pakistani jail. Has anyone checked what his family did between the time of his going missing from his farm and that letter? Were any police complaints filed? Was that letter he wrote from Pakistan sent to the government of India? Or to human rights organisations that are now being asked to intervene? If the GOI knew about it, then why was it quiet?

If there is another spy, then what does the Indian government have to say to the government of Pakistan about it? Their foreign minister, Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri, is clear that there has been no mistake. He has also stated, “The death sentence awarded by the courts can only be changed by the President on a mercy petition.”

However, if India is seeking clemency from Pakistan then, as their Information Minister Sheikh Rashid pointed out, the country’s law would not permit Musharraf to use his presidential authority to pardon Singh. “In Islamic law, only the heirs (of the victims) can give the pardon. Nobody else can.”

Therefore, are we trying to get the Pakistani government to appeal to the kin of the 14 dead people to pardon Sarabjit? What happens then to the argument of mistaken identity and the fact that he is not the person who committed the act? Who will those relatives of the victims being granting pardon to – an innocent man?

There are far too many missing links. I would appeal to the Indian government to steer clear. It isn’t its business to get involved on humanitarian grounds, unless it has concrete evidence.

Human Rights organisations can most certainly petition the government of Pakistan to desist from capital punishment. An independent enquiry ought to be conducted. We should not become unwitting toys in the hands of governments that want to sneakily transform their weapons of mass destruction into confidence building measures. We have had enough. Let us not make a hero-martyr of a man who we know nothing about.