Recently a Dhaka trial court sentenced eight activists to death and 13 others to life sentences in connection to the killing of Bishwajit Das last year.
Unsurprisingly, this turned out to be sensational news since the general members of the public have eagerly awaited knowledge about the verdict. The eight accused individuals are to walk the gallows for killing an individual and yet, apparently, the general members of the public perceive that due process has not been interfered with by the government and that justice has been done.
It is to be noted that this case was tried in the speedy trial tribunal and was completed within a period of just over a year since the incident had occurred. The defence lawyers rejected the verdict, as per their right. There was no fuss regarding impartiality, procedural fairness or sternness of the punishment from any faction of the people nor was there any concern about human rights being violated, that any of the accused to be hanged may be entitled to. Newspapers even reported that people demanded the immediate execution of the verdict. It would be hard to find someone who would not find death to be the fairest punishment for such a heinous act.
Anyone willing to advocate on abolishing the death penalty would find it very difficult to gain any support at all from the ordinary citizens of our country, as far as Bishwajit’s murder is concerned. It comes as a great shock to consider, in hindsight, the discussions that took place regarding the execution of the infamous Quader Molla for his horrifying acts during the Liberation War. The execution of the death sentence suddenly turned to be of great concern, not only for human rights activists but also for general members of the public.
Discussions regarding the justifiability of the death penalty were put forward by a group of professionals, including lawyers and journalists. Surprisingly, a large number of people even echoed the request of the international human rights organisations for abolishing capital punishment, at least in case of Quader Molla. The logical question arises: “Do we, the ordinary citizens, really even want to be treated equally by law, let alone the notion to be put to practice?”
The criminal Justice system plays a crucial role in maintaining law and order and upholding the same. Penal measures are present in all jurisdictions across the globe although they vary to some extent from country-to-country due to differences in the legal traditions, economic realities and social structures. The demand for abolishing capital punishment on humanitarian grounds should not be rejected; rather, such a higher standard of rights is something to aspire to for every developing nation. These differences of opinion regarding the penal measures do not interfere with the objective of establishing the rule of law.
Equality before the law is fundamental to the notion of rule of law, and before we can fight for the enforcement of our right to be treated equally, we must firmly believe in our right to be treated equally before the law. Our constitution protects this right clearly. An individual has every right to advocate his conviction, but advocacy for different treatment by the system based upon the political, social, economic, religious or ethnic identity should in no way be supported. Such dubious mentality will only make us more susceptible to unequal and unfair treatment by the government.
Let us not be divided on issues of politics in such a manner that we give up our rights to pleasing those who have created a false impression of being superior. Culprits should be punished in the same manner for the same misdeed, irrespective of their political, social, economic, religious or ethnic identities.
It would be unwise to assume that these propositions stated above are based on an autocratic mindset that forbids one to question the fairness or legitimacy of any act of the government or the judiciary. One does have the right to question the non-enforcement of rules and non-compliance with procedural fairness, but that should not pave the way for inconsistent stipulations, especially by those who are perceived as a source of insight into delicate matters by the general mass. A rule of law will never be established unless we all start believing in the fundamental notions that it is based upon. Let us develop a mentality for resenting every instance that violates the notion of equality before the
law and it will eventually result in the system treating us all equally.
