It’s been three years since terrorist Afzal Guru was sent to the gallows for his involvement in the 2001 Parliament attacks. Now, Former Finance Minister and senior Congress leader, P Chidambaram has said that the case was perhaps not correctly judged, reports Economic Times.
“I think it is possible to hold an honest opinion that the Afzal Guru case was perhaps not correctly decided. But being in government you cannot say the court has decided the case wrongly because it was the government that prosecuted him. But an independent person can hold an opinion that the case was not decided correctly.” he told Economic Times.
Chidambaram even went on to question whether Afzal Guru was at all involved in the terror attack. “There were grave doubts about his involvement in the conspiracy behind the attack on Parliament and even if he was involved, there were grave doubts about the extent of his involvement. He could have been imprisoned for life without parole for rest of his natural life,” he said.
But wasn’t it the UPA government which executed Afzal Guru? On this, Chidambaram said, “That is true, but I was not the home minister then…I can’t say what I would have done. It is only when you sitting on that seat you take that decision.”
On the subject of sedition charges being slapped on JNU students for shouting ‘anti-national’ slogans, the former Finance Minister called the charges ‘outrageous’. “Free speech is not seditious speech. Is your speech a spark in the powder keg (inciting violence) only then it amounts to sedition,” he said.
(Feature Image Source: PTI)