NDA Prime Ministerial candidate L K Advani has indicated that if voted to power, his government is likely to carry out the death penalty against Afzal Guru, convicted in the December 13 Parliament attack case, if the UPA hasn’t pardoned him by then.When asked what he would do if he came to power, Advani said: “We will go by the Supreme Court’s verdict..unless, by then, this government grants him clemency.” He was speaking to The Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta in an interview for Walk the Talk on NDTV 24 X 7.In August 2005, the Supreme Court upheld Afzal Guru’s conviction and death sentence. Calling it the “rarest of rare cases,” the bench had said: “The collective conscience of the society will be satisfied only if death penalty is awarded to Mohd. Afzal.” Afzal’s mercy plea is with the President of India waiting for a response from the Government.Advani said the UPA government “should not disregard the sentiments and feelings of the families of those security men who were killed in the attack on Parliament.” When asked if he felt there are times when one must be ruthless in the exercise of power, Advani said: “That is not a dilemma relating to Afzal Guru. It is a dilemma relating to capital punishment, which has been deliberated and discussed in many countries.” He said that “by and large most judges, experts of law, have favoured continuation of capital punishment and they have pronounced that it should be in the rarest of rare cases.”On his calling Manmohan Singh the “weakest” Prime Minister, Advani said: “My reference to his strength and weakness has relevance to the strength and weakness of the office of the prime minister, not to Manmohan Singh as a person..I’m concerned with the fact that 7 Race Course Road has lost its significance and 10 Janpath has become the prime address in the country. This is something that has never happened in a democracy. It has never happened before. This is why I call him a weak prime minister, who has allowed devaluation of the office of prime minister.My respect for him as a person is still there.”Admitting he had “practically no communication” with Sonia Gandhi — the interview was days before he met Sonia on Holi to present her a copy of his book — Advani recalled how his initial meetings with Rajiv Gandhi were “very, very cordial.” Asked if he would invite Sonia home, Advani said: “I have no problems about inviting her. The whole problem is that the whole party grovels before her.” Adding that, “if she invites me for lunch, I’ll go.”
