Remember Hetal and Hannah

Hetal Parikh could have been my daughter. The tragedy that befell her is every mother’s worst nightmare come true. But I could just as ...

Hetal Parikh could have been my daughter. The tragedy that befell her is every mother’s worst nightmare come true. But I could just as well have been Dhananjoy Chatterjee’s mother. And if I were I, too, would have pleaded with the president of India. The only difference would have been this: my fervent plea would be for my son not to be granted clemency nor shown the slightest hint of mercy, whatsoever. A man who commits such a heinous crime in cold blood and is so utterly unrepentant about it would in fact chill any maternal feeling that arose in any mother’s heart. He should in fact be meted out exemplary punishment.

The death sentence as logical punishment seems, to my mind, to be tinged with irony. In executing it we would, in fact be releasing Dhanjoy Chatterjee from the travails and miseries of this earthly world to somewhere where, I believe, there are no Dhananjoys. The grief that lingers would only be that of his parents.

But as parents of such brutal rapists and murderers do they have no moral duty towards the victim’s family? And what does one say of the various opportunistic NGOs who pop up and blabber about the ‘human rights’ of the convict. What of the rights of the victim — the innocent lost it all in one fleeting moment — the right not to be raped, the right not to be killed, the right to lead a normal life free of violations and abuse? How can anyone raise the issue of ‘human rights’ in such a blatantly partisan manner?

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Maninder Kohli’s father could not have raised his son to be a rapist and a murderer. But once confronted with irrefutable evidence of his complicity in such crimes, his sympathies must surely be with the parents who lost their young girl child — bright, beautiful, on the threshold of life.

I can see Hannah Foster in my daughter. Why can’t Maninder Kohli’s father see her in his own daughter? Hannah’s family will never be normal again. To know that her parents have not yet been able to go back to work and that their search for justice brought them halfway across the globe speaks volumes about the torture that lives on long after Hannah is gone. To see her parents conduct themselves with such composure and grace seems to me to be a miracle in itself. I know I would have lost my sanity.

How many of us can actually bring ourselves to condemn the wrongdoing of our own child? It is akin to turning a knife in our guts but it should not be shied away from. Every criminal is somebody’s beloved child. But for a strong social fabric our priorities as parents and the conduct of the judiciary must be impartial.

Parthala flyover in Noida barely visible through a dense cover of smog

2 days after Diwali, Delhi continues to inhale ‘very poor’ air

Cities1 hr ago

Residents in Delhi once again woke up to thick smog on Wednesday morning, with an AQI of 345 on October 22 at 5.30 am, falling in the ‘very poor’ category according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). This is the second consecutive day of deteriorating air quality in Delhi, after the national capital celebrated Diwali.

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