Castigating so-called ‘patriots’ for drum -beating on the Afzal Guru slogans raised at JNU, renowned columnist and author Prem Shankar Jha has said that if this is patriotism then he would like to be rather a rebel. He said writing in favour of Afzal Guroo does not make an Indian anti-national. “Scores of people have written articles and posts in the Indian media over the past three years expressing their shock at the hanging of Afzal Guru. Not one of them suggested that he should have been set free, only that he should not have been hanged,” he said.Jha said denying Afzal Guroo clemency served absolutely no national purpose. By 2013, there had been an election with a 52 percent turnout in Kashmir valley, and insurgent or militant violence had all but petered out. The hanging of Afzal only set the clock back and re-ignited anger and alienation in Kashmir, while an act of clemency would have done the opposite,” he said.
The versatile Columnist said that Afzal Guru's being made to wait 13 years on death row before being hanged rated squarely as cruel and inhuman punishment. “The Supreme court has held it to be so on several occasions, including the commutation to life imprisonment of the assassins of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. The UPA Government hurriedly and surreptitiously hanged him was an act that shamed all Indians, for it highlighted the lack of moral courage in the President's decision. The then government did not allow his family to say goodbye to him,” he said and questioned those who have written and admitted such facts were all anti-nationals? He said a particular TV anchor loves rubbing salt into peoples' wounds to titillate his viewers, but is this all that journalism is about? Prem Shankar Jha questioned. (CNS)