Long Live Ajmal Kasab….

Hate me for the title but this is perhaps the longest I have followed a news and waited for justice that I guess it is unfair to both Indian population and the true martyrs of our nation that someone like Ajmal Kasab now dies of some freak illness in his protected jail cell or as it looks more likely – of old age. I would rather wait and wish for his longevity and good health till the Indian Judicial system wakes up from its slumber and brings about an honest ending to this agonizing wait.

Right from November 2008 when Kasab and company landed on the shores of Mumbai and took the city under siege, to the days that followed when the sentiments were still high and then later when even after an year the ‘fair’ trial went on and on, to the day when the verdict on the trial was announced, I have kept following the news and the proceedings on the case.

If I was not already dejected enough by the agonizing wait and the realization of the fact that it was the hard earned money of the taxpayer’s money that was going into the upkeep of this ‘esteemed guest’ of the nation, the recent development on the case with Supreme Court staying Ajmal Kasab’s death sentence on October 11, 2011 has left me wondering if the nation needs another Udham Singh to step out and shoot the dog in his corner of the world.

Adding insult to the injury, the Apex court has permitted the appellant Kasab to amend his special leave petition to furnish additional grounds to challenge the capital punishment awarded to him by a Mumbai special court – the punishment which was confirmed by Bombay High Court as well.

I don’t want to know if this is in line with our democratic values and the elaborate constitution that we boast of to the world for clearly this is not in line with the legacy of the warriors and patriots who sacrificed families and comforts and their lives for the honor that they believed and lived by. I am reminded of Chandrashekhar Aazad who saved the last bullet for himself but did not give himself in to the British. If he was alive today, what would he think of the entire episode? Would he have allowed someone to walk around and slay innocent people on the streets and then sit pretty in his home?

I do not wish to be driven blind in rage or hatred towards this one low life who perhaps did not even know what was he trying to achieve. I am just disheartened and saddened by the snail pace of the judiciary and the way this entire saga has shaped up over a course of about three years now. It’s a sorry state of affairs and I feel just as wounded over what is going on in the name of a fair trial as a child who got orphaned or a man who lost his beloved or a kid who got trampled under someone’s feet on that fateful evening at CS Terminal.

But don’t you die now Kasab, at least not now when I have waited all these years to see or hear the account of how you broke your neck at the noose or cried hoarse when your eyes popped out and your feet got numb. Wish they would just cripple and maim you in public and leave you on the street to live at people’s mercy and their garbage. If that happens, I am sure every Indian would really wish for a very long life for you. But just in case you are reprieved and are given an easy death, your wait would not end soon. Your corpse would forever be restless in your grave and the reverberations of your gunshots shall forever resonate in your ears.