SHOULD INDIA ABOLISH THE DEATH PENALTY? [THE DEBATE OF THE FORTNIGHT ~ SUNDAY 16 DECEMBER 2012 TO SATURDAY 29 DECEMBER 2012]

NOTE: I will post a debate on a topic of this blog every fortnight. It will be twice in a month.

G_PramodKumar = Yes

Ideally, India should join the majority of nations that have abolished death penalty. It should certainly absorb the sentiment behind the increasing support by the comity of nations to the UN’s campaign for a moratorium on the practice and its abolition. Since 2007, more and more countries are jumping to the other side. Punishment by death, as the campaigners argue is against the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and a “premeditated and cold-blooded killing of a human being by the state.” The question is “can the state kill?” Death is death and it’s time that we stopped celebrating it and joined the growing tide of global opinion against it. 

Jaggi_FP = No

I would argue that all cases involving political assassinations, terrorism, or pre-planned mass murder of any kind are deserving of the death sentence. Keeping such people alive poses greater dangers to society and outweighs the moral compunctions involved in hanging them. The case for keeping a terrorist alive after conviction is based on flawed human reasoning. While it is always possible for a terrorist to repent and change his ways, what we have actually seen in the real world is that terrorists are highly motivated and believe in a cause that they think is worth killing for — and dying for, if necessary. This is what makes a terrorist kept alive in prison a greater danger than one sent to the gallows.

http://www.firstpost.com/debates/india-should-abolish-the-death-penalty_opinion-165.html?unid=20121124184559&utm_source=debate_rhs&utm_medium=article_india