UPA’s Afzal Record

UPA’s Afzal Record Afzal Guru, who the Supreme Court has convicted of conspiracy in the December 2001 Parliament attack case and who has remained on the death row for the last three years because the UPA government is afraid of ‘repercussions in the Kashmir valley’, now wants to be relieved of his suffering. He wants LK Advani to become ‘‘India’s next Prime Minister as he is the only one who can take a decision and hang him’’. He says ‘‘at least his pain and daily suffering would ease then’’. However, the UPA government would be unmoved. What apparently worries the government is clear to one and all — outrage in Kashmir and increase in vengeful militancy. But this outrage will remain restricted to those who have championed the cause of either free Kashmir or Pakistani Kashmir. As for militancy, it does not take Afzal’s fate to fuel anything in Kashmir. It simply takes the ISI to direct the jehadis to launch attacks on innocent men, women and children not just in Kashmir but in the whole of India too. And it will be a joke on the nation if the UPA government says it is unaware of that reality. So why is the government dithering on the Afzal issue? Either it wants Afzal to suffer more as he waits for the noose or it is worried about its most cherished vote bank! Sentinel Assam