<p>The Modi government has no plans to revisit the issue of doing away with death penalty in the wake of fierce debate sparked off by the hanging of 1993 Mumbai blast convict Yakub Menon on Thursday.<br /><br />Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday reiterated that death penalties will stay in India since they act as deterrent against such crimes.</p>.<p>“I have no issue with a debate on death penalty. Nobody likes a death sentence. The fact is courts are also very circumspect while awarding death sentence to anyone. But for a country which has faced terror activities, death sentence acts like a deterrence,” Jaitley said in an interview with India Today TV on Friday.<br /><br />Asked if the people responsible for the Mumbai riots, which preceded the blasts in Mumbai, should also be hanged like Memon, Jaitley said, “Yes, they should also be punished like that.” The Srikrishna Commission that investigated the Bombay riots had called the March 12, 1993 bombing as a reaction to the communal violence triggered by the demolition of Babri Masjid in December 1992.<br /><br />Jaitley again criticised the Opposition Congress for questioning Memon’s death sentence. “Where was the Congress when Indira Gandhi killers were given death penalty,” he asked.<br /></p>
<p>The Modi government has no plans to revisit the issue of doing away with death penalty in the wake of fierce debate sparked off by the hanging of 1993 Mumbai blast convict Yakub Menon on Thursday.<br /><br />Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday reiterated that death penalties will stay in India since they act as deterrent against such crimes.</p>.<p>“I have no issue with a debate on death penalty. Nobody likes a death sentence. The fact is courts are also very circumspect while awarding death sentence to anyone. But for a country which has faced terror activities, death sentence acts like a deterrence,” Jaitley said in an interview with India Today TV on Friday.<br /><br />Asked if the people responsible for the Mumbai riots, which preceded the blasts in Mumbai, should also be hanged like Memon, Jaitley said, “Yes, they should also be punished like that.” The Srikrishna Commission that investigated the Bombay riots had called the March 12, 1993 bombing as a reaction to the communal violence triggered by the demolition of Babri Masjid in December 1992.<br /><br />Jaitley again criticised the Opposition Congress for questioning Memon’s death sentence. “Where was the Congress when Indira Gandhi killers were given death penalty,” he asked.<br /></p>
