New Delhi: There is a clear divide between the Bharatiya Janata Party over the abolition of death penalty as party MP Varun Gandhi joined the chorus against it.
In an article in the Outlook magazine, Varun said death sentence only legalises vengeance and ought to be done away with. He argued that death penalty has historically enabled tyranny and that its utility of is proving to be anachronistic.
The Sultanpur MP has also called the hangman a disgrace to civilised society. The remarks came as 1993 Mumbai serial blasts convict Yakub Memon was executed.
Varun added that no correlation has been established between death penalty and deterrence and argued that India needs to recognise changing global scenario
and abolish death penalty.
"The utility of the death penalty is proving quite anachronistic. The hangman is a disgrace to any civilised country. India's criminal justice system lacks a critical definition of what constitutes the rarest of rare cases, leaving it to the discretion of the judge's conscience and socio-political beliefs. The endgame is a lethal lottery. For the largest democracy, the death penalty is an anomaly. It needs correction. Many that live do deserve death. And some that die deserve life. One must not be too eager to deal out death in judgment," said Varun.
Recently, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor faced BJP fire for his stand on death penalty. The Thiruvananthapuram had tweeted that he was saddened by the news that the government hanged a human being. While he added that he was not commenting on the merits of a specific case, like Memon’s, he said that he was against the concept of death sentence.
Memon was hanged early on Thursday morning on his 53rd birthday after he exhausted all legal options to appeal against his death penalty.
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