Is Torture The Answer?

A serious post is not something this blog is about. In fact it was created with the sole purpose to lighten the mood over the several mundane and drab happenings of the world. But there are some times, when we are forced to take a long, hard look at things and we are unable to joke about them.Which brings me to Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab. Sentenced to death on 4 counts and to life sentence on 5 others.
I have been following blog posts, notes etc. in reaction to the sentence. And nearly all are unanimous in the belief that he should be handed over to the Indian public. And then go on to suggest gruesome torture methods so that he is paid back in the same coin. I can understand the pain we feel and the hatred we have for the guy. As an Indian, I was deeply shocked and saddened by the events of 26/11 and I do feel that the perpetrators of the cowardly attack do not deserve to live. 'Sentenced to death by hanging for waging war against India' is probably as apt as it can get.
What I fail to understand, however, is the tremendous amount of vitriol and the belief that true justice will only be done if he is tortured and killed. Why? Handing over criminals to the public for justice is the done thing probably in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Somalia etc. The very countries, we take pride in being different from. So, do we forget our culture? Do we forget the moral values and ideals which makes this country tick? Do we forget that we live in a civil society where we have a judicial system in place? Do we forget that we are not considered a hardline country mainly because we do not believe in the concept of 'street justice'? All for the sake of one man. Is he really that important, that we need to lose our standing in the world for him? How different are we from the terrorists then?
And let us also not forget, Kasab did not come to India, expecting to be caught alive. He came to India, expecting to be 'shot and killed'. That was supposed to take him to Allah. If our hatred for him is primarily why we want him dead, the least we can do is to make sure that he does not die in the way he expected to. You could probably say that I do not feel the victim's pain when I advocate killing Kasab in a humane manner. But seriously, in their moment of grief, does Tukaram Ombale's family really care about how Kasab dies, as long as he dies?
Some again might say, this is precisely we are perceived to be a soft state. No. What makes us a soft state is placing Kasab at number 52 on the death row and then waiting indefinitely till we reach that number. Place him at 1 and be done with him. That will show that we are serious about tackling terrorists and will not tolerate any person holding our country to ransom.
We already have plenty of Kasabs to deal with as it is. There is no earthly need to go about creating more, just out of sympathy for the public execution of this worthless individual. Do we really need to create more hatred in a world, which is already racked by so much of it?