India is a democracy and shouting slogans like "Bharat ke bharbadi thak jang ladenge" is a direct call for action to destroy the democratic fabric of the nation. Given the geo political climate and with the knowledge that our own neighbours are vehemently exporting terrorism as a means to destabilize our nation such slogans and their implications are far reaching and is not merely a matter of freedom of speech. With numerous wars fought over the years and with events like the Mumbai attack and periodic blasts and other attacks within the nation one can hardly be surprised when one finds a section of the population sensitive towards such slogans and when its motives are questioned. The motives are again thrown open to questioning when a proxy debate on death penalty is instigated with Afzal Guru and Maqbool (and in some cases even Yakub Memon) as its poster boys while ignoring the rest of the20+ people who were executed since the 90s. Also why isn’t the death penalty awarded to current prisoners in the death row questioned and scrutinized? The switch and bait tactics is not the best way to go about in having a meaningful debate so the question if there are vested interests behind such veiled attacks on the Indian judiciary and the executive is a valid question.
Afzal Guru’s case though is not a water tight one, the Supreme Court has given the sentence within the constitutional limits and therefore it is abiding. The judiciary being independent of the executive eliminates any political motives for awarding the sentence or even framing someone to begin with. Afzal himself had given two confessions, one in the written form (which was discounted by the court saying the police had not followed the proper procedural mandates while obtaining it) and one given as an interview to Aj Tak in which he talked about helping the parliament attackers. Sedition charges can be and should be levelled against whoso ever speaks up against the Indian democracy or destroying it, should it be the rouge comrades or the khaki comrades. That is where we can draw the line. That don’t be so ignorant that you start saying you are going to destroy the Indian democracy.