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Hanged: Salman Khan's voice for daring to seek mercy for Yakub

Published On : 27 Jul 2015


Mumbai, July 26 (The Telegraph): Salman Khan injected his unconventional but full-throated voice into the debate on whether Yakub Memon should be hanged for the Bombay blasts but the superstar was silenced and forced to retreat into his parent-guided gilded cage by a backlash.

The tweets by the actor bordered on rants and the language was in keeping with his bratty image but the issue he raised was inescapable.

Several other prominent citizens today appealed to the President to show mercy to Yakub. Their language was far more restrained than that of Salman but the overall message was the same: "Grant of mercy in this case will send out a message that while this country will not tolerate acts of terrorism, as a nation we are committed to equal application of the power of mercy and values of forgiveness, and justice."

Yakub, the brother of Tiger Memon who has been described as one of the masterminds of the post-riot blasts that killed 257 people and changed one of the greatest cities in the world forever, is scheduled to be executed on July 30. Tomorrow, the Supreme Court is expected to hear a fresh appeal from him for mercy.

The gist of what Salman essentially said through the series of tweets (see chart) was something that cannot be disputed: "Brother is being hanged for tiger. Aarrre Whr is tiger?"

In spite of chest-thumping, successive governments from both ends of the political spectrum have failed to produce either Tiger or Dawood Ibrahim, the alleged kingpin, although security agencies occasionally report sightings in Pakistan and Dubai.

Against such a backdrop, when Salman asked "Whr is tiger?" it appeared to touch a raw nerve among the self-appointed protectors of the national interest.

A section of politicians swearing by parties such as the BJP and the Shiv Sena - and a host of trolls on the Net - seized on a particular tweet to claim that Salman had insulted the judiciary and called Yakub "innocent".

"1 innocent man killed is killing the humanity," the tweet had said.

It is a well-known and highly regarded religious verse that cannot be construed as a challenge to the judiciary.

Most of those rounding on Salman appear to have concluded from the tweet that he had called Yakub "innocent".

Kirit Somaiya, a BJP MP from Mumbai, tweeted: "Salman Khan feels Court Guilty & Yakub Memon ' Nirdosh' (innocent)? Salman ko terrorist Yakub ki chnta hai kintu lakho atank pidito ki shthiti ka kya!!! (Salman is worried about terrorist Yakub, but what about the state of the lakhs of terror victims?)"

Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray asked: "Is he (Salman) questioning the court? Is he saying the court is wrong?"

Ujjwal Nikam, who was the special public prosecutor in the blasts case, said: "The tweets amount to contempt to court. He has tried to give such an impression through his tweets that Yakub is innocent despite his conviction by the Supreme Court."

But criticising a judgment itself is not a crime in a democracy. Criticism becomes a crime if motives are attributed to the judge or claims are made that the judiciary had some vested interest or mala fide intention behind delivering a particular judgment.

Some reports started trickling in that posters of Bajrangi Bhaijaan, Salman's latest superhit now running in theatres, were being torn and screening stopped by Sena supporters in some districts of Maharashtra. Bhaijaan has earned Rs 217.82 crore in the domestic market in just nine days, already making it the sixth-biggest Bollywood box-office earner of all time.

Several Sena activists gathered outside Galaxy, where Salman lives, with flags. The actor's fans had already positioned themselves there, as is usual on weekends, and were raising slogans. Police threw a security cordon and no untoward incident took place.

It was against this backdrop that Salman, whose friends suggested that the tweets were in line with his usual Saturday night mood, tweeted this afternoon that "I would like to unconditionally apologise for any misunderstanding I may have created unintentionally".

Reaffirming suggestions that the 49-year-old "bad boy" had never been allowed to grow up, he added in a child-like tweet: "My dad called & said I should retract my tweets as they have the potential to create misunderstanding. I hereby retract them."

Enter, the lawyer's language. Exit, the boisterous tone and ring of spontaneity - qualities that make Salman one of the most bankable stars in the country - that marked the earlier tweets.

Dad Salim had already done the damage. "Whatever Salman has written is ridiculous and meaningless. Salman is ignorant of the issue and people should not take him seriously," the veteran scriptwriter said.

But the tweets suggested that Salman was not "ignorant" as his father was projecting his son to be.

One of the tweets by Salman said "Yakub menon (the actor kept referring to Memon as Menon, a Malayali surname that is often confused with that of the convict) pe pad k coment karna."

He seemed to be suggesting that comments on Yakub should be made after reading up on the issue.

Such homework would have thrown up startling revelations.

Last week, journalist Sheela Bhatt made public on the news portal rediff.com what she said was an unpublished article written in 2007 by B. Raman, who headed the Pakistan desk in the Research and Analysis Wing when Memon was flown to India from Kathmandu. There have always been suggestions that he wanted to surrender and that he was not arrested in Delhi as the security agencies have been claiming.

"The cooperation of Yakub with the investigating agencies after he was picked up informally in Kathmandu and his role in persuading some other members of the family to come out of Pakistan and surrender constitute, in my view, a strong mitigating circumstance to be taken into consideration while considering whether the death penalty should be implemented," Raman, who died in 2013, had written in the article.

Raman had said in the article that there was no doubt Yakub took part in the conspiracy and he deserved the death penalty in normal circumstances. "But if one also takes into consideration his conduct and role after he was informally picked up in Kathmandu, there is a strong case for having second thoughts about the suitability of the death penalty in the subsequent stages of the case," Raman had added.

Sources said Bhatt may be asked to depose before the Supreme Court tomorrow in case the judges need any clarification.

The petition the group of citizens submitted to President Pranab Mukherjee today also refers to "substantive and fresh grounds" that can be considered on merit to give reprieve to Yakub.

"Blood letting and human sacrifice will not make this country a safer place; it will, however, degrade us all," the 300 signatories said.

One name stood out from among the signatories: Shatrughan Sinha, the BJP MP who had yesterday met Nitish Kumar and described him as the best chief minister of the country.

The signatories include some of the most well-known names in India: Mani Shankar Aiyar, Sitaram Yechury, Prakash Karat, Brinda Karat, D. Raja, Naseeruddin Shah, Mahesh Bhatt, Irfan Habib, Aruna Roy and Jean Dreze.

But, evidently, none as explosive as Salman Khan who had to be bludgeoned into silence.







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