Castration of Culprits: Medicine Worse Than Disease

Parmanand Pandey

A judge of Delhi, Ms Kamini Lau has suggested that the punishment to the convicts of rape case should be made exemplary and extremely deterrent. Her main suggestion, however, is that instead of increasing the period of incarceration of a rape-culprit to life imprisonment or putting him gallows, he should be chemically castrated. Such a person would find that his life has become a virtual hell for him and he would be constantly subjected to derision and ridicule of the society. This mortification will always haunt him to make him realise of his beastly guilt every moment till the last breath of his life.

In fact, according to many theories of punishment, there are mainly its three objectives: Reformative, Retributive and Deterrent. The crimes have also been broadly divided into two categories: One is against individual and the other is against individual plus society. In the second type of crimes; although the sufferer or victim is individual yet, it is considered to be a challenge to the law and order of the state and therefore, it is treated a crime to have been committed against the society. The state prosecutes the accused persons only against the crimes falling into IInd category. Punishment depends on the gravity of the crime.

There is no gainsaying that the rape is the most heinous crime and the trauma of a rape victim is indescribable. No amount of punishment can assuage and ameliorate the pains and sufferings of the victim. The attitude of the society further aggravates her mental agony and torture wreaking havoc on her. Therefore, the foremost thing that is to be done to change the mental attitude of the society as she undergoes almost daily. She often falls prey to deep depression. The rape victim deserves the sympathy and sweet words of the people around her and the culprit needs to be condemned in the harshest possible manner.

Having said it all, we, as a civilised society, will not have to lose the hope of a criminal getting reformed. A criminal's mental framework has also to be taken into account, particularly at the time of crime. It is also possible that he might have committed this dastardly crime under the influence of drinks and drugs. That is why, in criminal jurisprudence 'Actus Reus' is said to be based on 'Mens Ria'.'Tooth for a tooth' and 'eye for eye' is a form of retributive justice. Now it has become a thing of the past except in some hidebound Islamic countries. Genuine remorse and regret have worked wonders for the improvement of a criminal. Hence, the suggestion of the Delhi judge for castration of rape criminal however, well intentioned it may be, must be rejected at the very threshold.

Even the notion of this sort of punishment will push the society to the dark days of medieval period, which no well meaning person would like to return to. Be that as it may, the civil society, the judiciary and the legislature all will have to pool-their minds to see that the horrendous crime of rape is curbed. Punishment must be tinged with meaning intentions.

Medicine should never be worst than the disease. Its purpose is to cure the disease; not to further push the criminal into the vale of the barbaric crimes.

Mamata's Historic Win in West Bengal

Parmanand Pandey

Massive victory of Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal assembly elections is satisfying, momentous and epoch making. Marxists have been blown after 34 years of uninterrupted rule in the strong gale of Mamata's popularity.

Actually, it has been set in the psyche of the people for the last nearly two decades that the Marxists were invincible and it would be impossible to replace them through any democratic exercise because; they have mastered the art of subverting the public opinion by taking recourse to force and coercion and rigging the elections. In fact, the people of West Bengal have been fed up with the dictatorship and goondaism of Marxist rulers and cadres' right from the early eighties; but their anger reached the saturation point from the late nineties. If free and fair elections had been held for the West Bengal assembly, they would have thrown out in 2001 elections, if not before. Notwithstanding the huge wrath of the general public Marxists managed to win the 2001 elections. People, however, were aghast and felt cheated. In 2006 general elections of assembly the patience and anger of the people crossed all limits though; the Marxists were again able to manipulate the results in their own favour. This led to further cynicism among the young men and women and they started taking up the arms in large numbers.

Thus the Marxists have been mainly responsible for the growth of naxalism and frustration among youngsters. In fact, Most of the leaders of the Left Front suffer from arrogance and hubris. They still live in the Stalinist era and have refused to come out of time warp. The world has moved millions of miles ahead and away from the ideology of Lenin and Stalin, but they ridiculously harp on that fossilised philosophy. Scientific discoveries and means of production have changed and revolutionised the world beyond recognition, yet the blockheaded Marxists tired to oppress the wishes and aspirations of people with indiscriminate application of force and fraud.

At one point of time, the West Bengal was considered to be the most industrialised state of the country and was in the proud company of Maharashtra and Gujarat which at present is not only the worst governed state but the least industrialised state of India. Hundreds of industrialists and industries had to migrate from West Bengal to other state because of hostile attitude of the Left government. Hundreds of thousands of workers were left high and dry during the misrule of the Left Front. In the name of promoting trade unionism, they killed the hens that were laying eggs to feed the workers. Not surprisingly, therefore, the West Bengal has been posting very high negative trend of growth from all indexes resulting into large scale unemployment.

The most egregious misdeed of the Left Front government was; however, to allow the large scale infiltration of Bangladeshis in India. Needless to mention, crores of Bangladeshis have permanently settled in India by illegally entering through porous borders and the most outrageous act of the Marxist government was to give legitimacy to these Bangladeshis by providing them ration cards and putting their names in the election voters list. Thus the infiltrators are now the bonafide citizens of India As a consequence of it, the original inhabitants have been reduced into minority and they are cursed to live in the constant fear of Bangladeshis. These Bangladeshis have changed the demographic contours of several electoral constituencies not only in the West Bengal but in other neighbouring states like; Assam and Bihar. As these Bangladeshi have been voting in favour of the Left Front en block, therefore, they were always welcome with open arms of the Left government. Bangladeshis have now spread to almost all parts of India thanks to inept handling of the Central as well as the Left Front government of the West Bengal. They (Bangladeshis) are now posed a serious threat of law and order problems in almost every state. Besides, the security of the country is also endangered because of their sizeable pan-India presence.

All said and done; the Left Front leaders must be praised for their monetary honesty and austerity although the same is not true about their cadres. The general cadre of the Left Front has been as corrupt or sometimes more corrupt as the Congressmen and other party workers. It must be borne in the mind that the Left Front leaders and cadres would not easily swallow and tolerate their defeat and, therefore, they will certainly pose problems for Mamata Bangerjee at every step. Since they are well-entrenched at all levels of administration they will create stumbling blocks and hindrances for the new dispensation by all conceivable manners.

Therefore, Mamata Bangerjee will have to tread very cautiously. She will have to use the iron hand to crush the trouble makers but at the same time; she will have to take urgent steps for developmental works, so as to come up to the high expectations of the general public. I am sure she is fully aware of the challenges May she gets the strength to successfully grapple the problems and difficulties and surge the state forward by Godspeed. More about Mamata sometimes later.

Killing of Osama: Pak Exposed

Parmanand Pandey

The precise 40 minute military operation carried out by American navy to kill Osama Bin Laden on the last May 1 at Abbottabad (Pakistan) was absolutely marvellous and breathtaking. This was really unprecedented from many angles. The operation has completely exposed the duplicity and blatant lie of Pakistani authorities for whom Osama Bin Laden was virtually laying golden eggs. What was known to everybody, although Pakistan was trying to cover it with thin veneer, yet became stark clear after the military operation that Osama Bin Laden and numerous other terrorists have been trained, fed and nurtured and sheltered by Pakistan Army. Pakistan, without doubt, is a rogue state which has been thriving on the crop of terrorists. It is the biggest exporter of terrorism across the world, be it India, USA, Britain, Chechanya or Canada. India of course, is the biggest victim, which has to bear the brunt most.

It is very regrettable that western countries, particularly USA, mainly responsible for creating the monsters like Osama Bin Laden, have been feigning ignorance about the Pakistan sponsored terrorism. In fact, USA has often shown insensitivity towards the plights and sufferings of India even when she had to capitulate before Talibani terrorists at the time of hijacking of aeroplane at Kandahar. The ring leader of the hijackers Majhar Masood walked passed into the Pakistan territory in the full glare of authorities after his release by no less a person than the then Indian External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh. His photographs were flashed in newspapers addressing the gathering in a mosque situated in Pakistan. India plaintively pleaded to the world that she was the victim of Pakistan sponsored terrorism but no one heeded to India's cry.

It is also shameful on the part of Indian leadership which developed Goosebumps when it came to sternly dealing with Pakistan trained thugs of Taliban. The families of the hijacked passengers in India showed despicable behaviour by assembling before the P.M. house and orchestrating the demand for release of hardcore terrorists in lieu of the release of their kith and kin. These middle class families would not shed any tear on the death of hundreds of brave jawans on the border but they did not hesitate to make hue and cry or hullabaloo over the impending death of some of their relatives. India Media's role was highly condemnable, which created all hype and hysteria in favour of shameless family members of hijacked passengers. As a result of it, the weak and debilitating government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee buckled under the pressure. Again Indian Parliament was brutally attacked and the country lost many brave policemen but that too could not move even the so-called democratic countries.

The main culprit of Mumbai riots, Dawood Ibrahim is sitting pretty and enjoying the comforts of Pakistani hospitality at Karachi. Similarly, the masterminds of 26/11 of Mumbai are roaming freely in Pakistan. What to say of mimicking the Abbottabad operation of USA, Indian Government has shown the chicken heartedness by not hanging the judicially pronounced culprits like Kasab and Afzal. Entire world knows that Pakistan was responsible for trespassing in Kargil but Pak authorities denied their hands in the war being fought in the name of Mujahdeen. It was ruse for throwing dust in the eyes. It is good that nobody now gives any credence to the denials of Pakistan.

Coming to OBL, Pakistan Government crossed all the limits of lie and hypocrisy, when it has been befooling the world for nearly a decade that it was actively involved in anti-terror campaign and tracking down of Osama Bin Laden, while the reality was totally different and OBL was being harboured by it. America must have pumped in more than thirty billion dollars in Pakistan just to get hold of Osama Bin Laden but every time, when American forces were close to catch the dreaded terrorist, the move was invariably jeopardised by Pak army as it always alerted the target. Alas! The money that was given to Pak was used for propping terrorism in India.

This meticulous military operation of Abbottabad has also exposed that Pakistan's bluff and bravado was hollow to the core as American choppers carried out their operation well within the entrenched garrison of the army and its army could know about it only when the entire would was rejoicing the death of the dreaded criminal Osama Bin Laden. It would have been better if OBL had been caught alive as that would have further laid bare Pakistan's schemes and lies. The death is hardly is rejoiced except in the cases of demons like the mass killer Osama Bin Laden. Let us join the world to celebrate the obliteration of the devil.