Life hand mercy – Who decides Nalini’s plea ?

Meow! A sound that dog owners will dismiss with a chuckle, but is the defining sound of our generation. Yes, I am talking about the interview of our time. An entire generation of Indian youth, on that red letter day, the time had finally arrived, history was imminent – I am getting breathless. Wait. Thank you. A shady tree that protected the two faces of India from the relentless May Delhi sun. A brilliant media mind like none we had seen before and the Woman herself.  Yes,that interview under shady tree. Two sisters, one interview.

Bzzzzt! Sorry, got carried away… Back to the story.

Anyway here is an article about Nalini’s clemency plea.

Life Death and Quality of Mercy

Where had the family found the emotional strength to commute Nalini’s death sentence to life, I asked. And why? Because, she explained, they knew what it felt like for a child to lose a parent. “Something has happened to you that has made you feel awful. Something has happened that has crushed you inside. So how can you want that to happen to someone else? An innocent child, what has that child got to do with anything?” she said.

Source : The Blog of our times

Just three points  – that are completely missing from this article.

1. Life term is a life term. This has been repeated by the Supreme Court several times.

2. A dozen policemen were killed that day too while on duty. One person cannot assume Zen like powers to forgive on everyone’s behalf.

3. The LTTE and Prabhakaran  angle is tangential and irrelevant.  The Indian state could only apprehend Nalini and the issue is her pardon. Just how important is the Tamil feeling of kinship ? Lets take an example : This Pongal there was not even a passing mention of the plight of the Lankan tamils. None of the TV Channels owned by Dravidian parties took the opportunity to spare a moment for the refugees, many of whom are still behind barb wire fences. They went straight to the song and dance routines as if nothing had happened to the Tamil race since the last Pongal. The debates were the usual mother-or-wife variety. Everyone is busy planning the a grand Tamil Jamboree at the same time the Sinhalese are celebrating a military humiliation.  Everyone remembers how the cinema guys huffed and puffed at Rameswaram. Yet, none of the new Tamil cinema awardees are even going to mention the Lankan Tamils in their acceptance speech.  This is the way it rolls in Tamilnadu. What does this tell you ?   The dravidian movement is first about a new caste based redistributive social order rather than any grand Tamil ambition.

Being unfamiliar with the merits of her case, I am not saying that Nalini should not be released for time served. Just saying that there should be a process. It should be fair and should equally represent the grief of all those killed. Everyone is human and equal, something the generation of our time needs to grokk.