Govindachamy case: Left in Kerala caught between aggressive and merciful Marxists?
The CPM is split over the Supreme Court decision to commute the death sentence awarded to Govindachamy convicted of raping and killing a woman five years ago
Bengaluru: A Supreme Court decision to commute the death sentence awarded to a man convicted of raping and killing a 23-year-old woman five years ago has triggered a debate in Kerala and its Leftist government.
Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the government will seek a review of Thursday’s verdict, commuting the sentence against Govindachamy to seven years in jail, as quickly as possible.
“Govindachamy should be given the capital punishment at least a hundred times," Kerala law minister A.K. Balan told reporters on Friday.
Balan, a central committee member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPM, which leads Kerala’s ruling Left Front, said he would talk to prominent lawyers to explore a review petition against the verdict.
Two of the party’s senior most leaders in Kerala, V.S. Achuthanandan and M.A. Baby, have opposed the government’s stand. Both suggested that if the government seeks restoration of the death penalty against Govindachamy, it will be going against the CPM’s official line.
In theory, they are correct. Most Left parties are against the death penalty in India. In 2013, just months after the hanging of Parliament attack case convict Afzal Guru, CPM adopted a position against capital punishment.
CPM’s then general secretary Prakash Karat called the death penalty inhuman and said it should be abolished, according to a report in The Hindu.
Sitaram Yechury, the present boss of CPM, has also advocated abolishment of capital punishment. The very first act of the first communist government in Kerala itself was to commute the sentence of prisoners on death row.
Baby, a CPM Politburo member, underlined this ideological commitment, stating that he would have opposed the hanging even of Nathuram Vinayak Godse, the assassin of Mahatama Gandhi.
As the debate continues, the government would have to quickly decide how it wants to argue its case if it decides to seek a review of the verdict commuting Govindachamy’s death sentence.
A Thrissur fast-track court had awarded him the death sentence, which was upheld by the Kerala high court.
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