The mother of the December 2012 Delhi gang-rape and murder victim has hit out at senior lawyer Indira Jaising for asking her to forgive the four men, who are on death row for committing the brutal crime against her daughter.The mother was reacting to Indira Jaising’s tweet on Friday.“Who is Indira Jaising to give me such a suggestion? The whole country wants the convicts to be executed. Just because of people like her, justice is not done with rape victims,” she was quoted as saying by news agency.
“I can’t believe how Indira Jaising even dared to suggest such this. I met her many times over the years in the Supreme Court, not once did she ask for my wellbeing and today she is speaking for convicts. Such people earn a livelihood by supporting rapists, hence rape incidents don’t stop,” she said.
Jaising had tweeted the request soon after the mother had said she felt “betrayed” after a court in Delhi deferred the date of the execution of the four convicts from January 22 to February “While I fully identify with the pain of Asha Devi I urge her to follow the example of Sonia Gandhi who forgave Nalini and said she didn’t not want the death penalty for her. We are with you but against the death penalty (sic),” Jaising had tweeted.
The lawyer was referring to Nalini, who was arrested and convicted for her role in the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 allegedly by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).The 23-year-old woman’s mother broke down on Friday after the court set the new date for hanging the four convicts.“Humein bas tareekh pe tareekh mil rahi hai (We are only getting date after date)… I do not know what to feel anymore. We are only being given dates and pushed from one courtroom to the other,” she had said.The four convicts — Mukesh Singh, Akshay Thakur, Pawan Gupta and Vinay Sharma — were among the six men who brutally gang-raped the paramedical student on a moving bus on December 16, 2012, and pushed her out of the vehicle.She later succumbed to her injuries at a Singapore hospital on December 29.Mukesh Singh, Akshay Thakur, Pawan Gupta and Vinay Sharma were convicted and sentenced to death for the crime.One of the convicts was a juvenile and let off after serving three years in a reform home and the other allegedly committed suicide in jail.
Cricket is no longer the sport Mark Boucher used to play, but as South Africa's coach he has inherited the challenges of the modern game. And at the top of that list is a problem bursting with talent and skill - but who explodes with poorly directed aggression too often for his own good and for the good of his team.
Kagiso Rabada will miss the series-deciding fourth Test at the Wanderers next week while he serves a ban for his behaviour towards Joe Root. After clean-bowling the England captain with the best ball delivered on the first day of the third Test at St George's Park on Thursday, Rabada celebrated loudly and passionately within millimetres of the dismissed batter. That earned him a level one conviction for "using language, actions or gestures which disparage or which could provoke an aggressive reaction from a batter upon his or her dismissal during an international match". He did not contest the charge. His sentence of a fine of 15% of his match fee and one demerit point meant he had piled up four points for - which prompted the one-match ban.
The current version of the code of conduct came into operation in September 2016, more than four years after Boucher had retired. He played 147 Tests as a wicketkeeper-batter between October 1997 and November 2012, and was recognised as one of the most aggressively competitive players in the world game.
"In our day we didn't have to deal with this stuff because we could say pretty much what we wanted and get away with it," Boucher said after stumps on Friday. "So it is a learning curve for me with all these new rules and regulations that have come in. I heard about it this morning. I've just come into the system and I wasn't aware of the demerit points; that whole system and how it quite works. So to hear [Rabada is] going to be banned for the next Test is a massive blow to us. He's a world class performer, especially at the Wanderers, where I think he'd be very effective."
Boucher has been South Africa's coach since December 14, or long after Rabada racked up his first five sentences for bad conduct in his dealings with batters. How will he fix the problem? "'KG' probably bowls at his best when he's nice and aggressive," Boucher said. "It's trying to find a balance between keeping him nice and aggressive and not boxing him in. But understanding the laws of the game and trying to stay on the good side. It's going to be tough but it's something we will have to address. 'KG's a team man, so he'll feel very disappointed."
Did Boucher apportion more blame to the code's sometimes overweeningly precious provisions for player behaviour, or to Rabada himself? "Both. Not talking with a coach's cap on, you don't want to take all the aggression out of the game of cricket. You've got two countries playing hard cricket against each other in a heated situation. Guys are trying really hard. Sometimes their emotions overflow. Maybe I'm a little bit disappointed in the rule and regulations. But if you know the rules and regulations then you've got to stick to them. 'KG' knows what he can and cannot do, and he maybe pushed a little bit too far."