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Varun Gandhi for abolishing death penalty, BJP says personal view
New Delhi, Aug 1
Bharatiya Janata Party MP
Varun Gandhi on Saturday came out against the death penalty, noting most
of the death row convicts are Dalits or from the minorities. His pary
distanced itself from the stand, calling it his personal view.
Fellow party MP Shatrughan Sinha has also spoken against capital punishment.
In
an article titled "The Noose Casts A Shameful Shadow," Gandhi said: "75
percent of the convicts on death row belong to the socially and
economically marginalised classes; 94 percent of death row convicts are
Dalits or from the minorities.
"The poor consistently get the
short end of the legal stick. The death penalty is a consequence of
poor legal representation and institutional bias. The gallows remain a
poor man's trap," he added.
Pitching for abolition of death
penalty, Gandhi, an MP from Uttar Pradesh's Sultanpur, contended that
"society can be protected from miscreants, criminals and terrorists
through less disproportionate means that preserve our dignity, values
and institutions".
He also termed the hangman a disgrace to any civilized society.
"Beyond
its ethics, a basic unpredictability makes capital punishment a social
evil," he said, stressing that India, as one of the 58-odd countries
where death penalty is retained, needs to recognise the changing global
scenario.
"The death penalty is not just a remedy available at
the disposal of the law, but a human rights issue, beyond the pale of
law. For the largest democracy, the death penalty is an anomaly. It
needs correction. Many that live do deserve death. And some that die
deserve life. One must not be too eager to deal out death in
judgement," he said.
Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said it was Gandhi's personal view.
"There
is provision of capital punishment for rarest of the rare case and the
Supreme Court pronounces verdict on it," he said in a press conference.