2008 attack that had caught India off guard and had shocked the global community. The 26 foreigners killed in the attack included people from as many as 13 countries including Israel.

As many as 166 people were killed in the attacks by some 10 men from Pakistan. They split into pairs, and spent 72 hours targeting the city’s landmarks such as a hospital, popular Taj Hotel alongside Mumbai’s famous Marine drive and also a Jewish centre.

After the rejection of his mercy petition, Kasab was shifted from his high-security Arthur Road Jail cell in Mumbai to the Pune jail.

Since his arrest in 2008, Kasab was kept in the bulletproof cell in the Mumbai jail. The Bombay High Court sentenced him to death in October last year after he was convicted on charges ranging from treason to waging war against India.

He had appealed to the Supreme Court, which ruled against him. The mercy petition was quickly disposed off by the President as the public sentiments across the nation demanded an exemplary punishment for Kasab.

The hanging took place at Yerawada Jail at 7:30 am forcing the countrymen to wake up with the ‘pleasant and exciting news item’

It is also worth mentioning that Pranab Mukherjee was the External Affairs Minister in 2008 during the attack. In fact on December 11, 2008 Mukherjee had in an emotive and assertive speech against Pakistan for its years old complexity in supporting terror had urged Islamabad to “act” seriously but dispelled notions that war is any solution. “The war against Pakistan is no solution,” Mukherjee had said.

However, it is ironical that while India “rejoiced” the capital punishment on the 25-year-old Kasab; the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has threatened to avenge the execution. “There is no doubt that it is very shocking news and a big loss that a Muslim has been hanged on Indian soil,” Taliban spokesman said.

The government has subsequently alerted the security mechanism across the country.

The execution also sparked off – predictably – demand for hanging of another terrorist Afzal Guru ,cooling heels behind bars for last 11 years. His mercy petition with the President is pending for years now and has also often treated as a political hot potato.

After 26/11 terror attack gunman’s execution, BJP’s Hindutva mascot and Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi expressed his disappointment questioning, “What about Afzal Guru, who attacked Parliament, our temple of democracy, in 2001? That offence predates Kasab’s heinous act by many years?” Curiously a report, which was published by The Pioneer (incidentally edited by BJP MP Chandan Mitra) claimed that activities inside Tihar Jail no-3 is an “indication” that the prison administration could be readying itself to hang Guru before the Gujarat assembly elections.
 
Even Congress leader Digvijaya Singh, hardly a Muslim baiter, also demanded that Afzal’s case should be expedited.

But the hoopla and scenes of repeated rejoice on television have not gone well to several reasonable Indians.

“India suffers from collective idiocity and rejoices too in this. The focus is misplaced; in place of asking questions on security loopholes, which allow 10 terrorists to sneak in and butcher 166 people in the financial capital of the nation, jokers indulge in Kasab saga,” lamented a Delhi-based journalist on Facebook.

Perhaps the debate over the need to deal with the very concept of ‘capital punishment’ too resurfaced in public domain.

Many observers while condemning the 26/11 attack also happened to subscribe to the belief in opposing capital punishment.
“Judging from the scorn, hate and abuse for Kasab and the sheer happiness and gloating of his death as seen on social media sites and television channels, the like of me are me in a minority,” commented another in UCAN News.

“The point today is not if the state is right or wrong to use capital punishment but one of mercy and leniency. I think we as humans have evolved, progressed beyond retribution for the death penalty violates the right to life as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” wrote Ivan Fernandes from Hyderabad.

Indian foreign minister Salman Khurshid joined the debate. “Instinctively, we are against the death penalty,” said Khurshid adding “It’s a difficult decision to execute anyone”. But he defended the hanging of Kasab.

Ideally speaking, death penalty should be done away with it. But the national safety and security is of paramount interest these days.

The purpose of punishment is to change one person for a good cause. But in the instances of ‘brain-washed’ terrorists these are not easy jobs. An eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth is never a solution, but statecraft also means taking some uncomfortable steps. Kasab’s hanging would go down the memory lane as one such case in point. But certainly by acting on Kasab case, after a long time, the Indian government has perhaps put across a message that the country is ‘not a soft state’ in fighting the menace of terrorism. By no stretch of argument, perhaps, Kasab could have been kept alive.

It appears to have been perfectly timed by the UPA government ruling under one failure after the other. Now, whether this will help the Congress party politically is any body’s guess.