Events define the course of history and stamp our memories. The pantheonisation ceremony of the legendary French jurist and statesman, Robert Badinter, in Paris on October 9, was such an event. The honour of a cenotaph for him, in the company of Voltaire, Simone Weil and the other greats of France in the Pantheon in central Paris, is a befitting homage to an exceptional humanist for his relentless crusade against capital punishment, in an ennobling life of public service. Monsieur Badinter regarded the death penalty as the ultimate affront to human dignity and made its abolition his life’s mission. By consecrating his memory, France has reinforced the core premises of its political and cultural inheritance, in a world with shifting fidelity to the foundational values of democracy. The honour accorded to Badinter has a message for a world grappling with moral ambivalence. It tells us that the record of selfless service to humanity is etched in popular consciousness and inspires succeeding generations towards a progressive civilisational march.
In an eloquent tribute to Badinter, President Emmanuel Macron, in his opening speech at the ceremony, said: “Robert Badinter will take his place alongside the men of 1789 — Condorcet, Abbe Gregoire, Gaspard Monge — and not far from where Victor Hugo, Emile Zola, Jean Jaures, Jean Moulin, Missak Manouchian and others rest. Robert Badinter enters the Pantheon with the Enlightenment and the spirit of 1789 — the fulfilled promise of the Revolution. He enters with the principles of the rule of law, with a certain idea of humankind, inseparable from the republican ideal… his voice pleading for his great and unfinished battles: The universal abolition of the death penalty, the fight against the poison of antisemitism and its preachers of hate and the defence of the rule of law, resonates. His battles are those that span the centuries and uphold our ideals — the true definition of who we are…”
The speech added to the dignity and grandeur of the ceremony. The liveried men in arms who carried the ceremonial casket in state, the finest of French commentators, playwrights, singers and esteemed members of the French cultural and political establishment, transcending political divides, joined with their words and music, reading selected extracts from Badinter’s writings.
The homage to Badinter in the most sacred of the French monuments reminds us that idealists, as shapers of national destinies and messengers of humanity, survive in the affection of the people as objects of veneration and pride. The moral of the Badinter story is that lesser mortals seduced by the pomp of power, willing to suborn public welfare for private gain, and those who mock idealism in preference to amoral politics, stand dwarfed in the presence of true greatness defined by sacrifice and selflessness.
As an admirer of Badinter and having had the honour of knowing him for several years, I had the privilege of being invited to attend the pantheonisation ceremony by President Macron. I first met him several years ago at an informal reception hosted by the then Commissioner of the European Union in New Delhi, where we conversed about the advisability of India continuing with the death penalty. Having witnessed heinous acts of terrorist violence in my home state of Punjab in the 1980s, I felt that the time was not opportune for abolishing capital punishment in India. Not entirely convinced by the dominant logic of the day, Badinter maintained that the death penalty was dehumanising and had not served its avowed function as a deterrent. His conviction was firm but humbly communicated. His visage conveyed serenity, poise, dignity and wisdom deepened by humility.
My first impression of Badinter was reinforced during our subsequent meetings at his residence in Paris over the years. As the Minister for Law and Justice in the Manmohan Singh government years later, I had occasion to revisit the question of capital punishment and am convinced that Badinter was right in stressing the futility of the death sentence as a deterrent to crime. Experience across the world has confirmed the validity of his views.
A man of many parts, Badinter, the Minister for Justice during the presidency of Francois Mitterrand and later President of the Constitutional Council of France in 1986, was a sensitive philosopher steeped in his commitment to the inalienable human rights. His life in the public sphere was dedicated to the furtherance of fundamental rights, the rule of law and a humane international order founded in liberty, equality and fraternity. He refused to reduce human life to mere existence and sacrifice its essence to the gaucheries of the world.
His glorious legacy, now carried forward by the gracious Elizabeth Badinter, a distinguished writer and philosopher in her own right and an intellectual companion to her husband for nearly six decades, will continue to inspire our vision of a just world. Indeed, the ideals for which Badinter fought need to be affirmed even more vigorously, considering that the fundamental tenets of liberal democracy, anchored in the accountability of power and dignity of man, are increasingly hostage to the pull of majoritarianism in a polarised world.
Farewell, Monsieur Badinter. Your place in the annals of history assured, may you find comfort in the thought that the torch of justice, pure and benign, that you nourished, will inspire future generations to light the path to a happier and fairer world.
The writer is a senior advocate and former Union Minister for Law and Justice.
Views are personal
Farewell, Monsieur Badinter. Your place in the annals of history assured, may you find comfort in the thought that the torch of justice, pure and benign, that you nourished, will inspire future generations to light the path to a happier and fairer world.
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