Justice or Revenge?

India’s first execution of a death penalty in eight years, the speed with which Ajmal Kasab (the only perpetrator of the 26 November 2008 killings to have been held) was hanged after his mercy petition was rejected by the president, the public celebrations that erupted in a few parts of the country and the manner in which the media has reported/commented on the hanging in Pune on 21 November must force us to ask ourselves: Are we a society that seeks justice or prefers to lust for revenge?

Kasab’s action four years ago on the night of 26 November was no ordinary crime. He was a volunteer in a plan to show India’s state and society that a small group could inflict large-scale violence and wreak massive human tragedy in public places. Kasab himself was part of the two-member team that caused the largest number of deaths and injuries that terrible night, mowing down dozens of innocents on the concourse of Mumbai’s main railway station.