My Opinion

I was out the country for the past 10 days and let me tell you that the whole world talks about our Parliament and how there are only disruptions happening. Many experts say that Parliament is not a place to protest but discussions and debate. Placards should not be displayed, there shouldn’t be ruckus in the house. If protests take place inside Parliament then what will be the difference between Jantar mantar and Parliament. When Congress was in power, the BJP didn’t allow the house to function. Now the Congress is has gone steps ahead to disrupt the house. this has no doubt affected India’s image and of course Speaker Sumitra Mahajan has a reason to worry.

This time the discussions that happened inside and outside the Parliament took a bad shape with attacks going personal. Rahul Gandhi dragged Prime Minister Modi into everything and BJP leaders launched personal attacks on Sonia and Rahul Gandhi. We also saw Congress President Sonia Gandhi angrily rushing to the Well of the house just because one of the BJP MP attacked her sister on the Lalit Modi row. It is essential for a democracy to avoid such personal attacks and focus on debates of national issues in the Parliament.

Yakub Memon is a criminal, he was sentenced by the Supreme Court, he was given a fair trial. His mercy petition was rejected by the President of India. Now there cannot be any debate that he was not given a chance to defend himself. But it is also a fact that the victims of 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts will not get complete justice even after executing Yakub Memon. His only mistake was that he provided financial assitance along with logistics, the main culprit is Tiger Memon. Until Tiger Memon is punished, the victims of the blasts won’t get complete justice.

Yakub Memon was given a free and fair trial, all the witnesses were heard by the Supreme Court. He should have been hanged by now but there still lies a debate even today on his execution. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, many people believe that he came to India and helped the government gather a lot of information on Tiger Memon. He thought that he would turn an approver in the case and would be let free after the trial. Secondly, Yakub only provided financial assistance for the blasts which is not a crime to be hanged for. Now these arguments are in front of the apex court. The date of the execution has been finalised. The controversy is so big that even the two judges of the Supreme Court handling the case have different opinions.

Farooq Abdullah is right, he understands the sentiments of the Kashmiri youths. Those who are waving Pakistan and ISIS flags in the valley are neither terrorist nor Pakistanis, they are our own people and we should understand their concerns. We should make an effort to understand that why are these people favouring Pakistan. The moment these youths are employed and are free from all worries, Pakistani flags will not be seen in Kashmir and they will not empathise with Pakistan. They won’t take much time coming back on track.