Strong reaction from Delhi. First condemnation from any major country…
New Delhi: On Saturday after two Arab television reports confirmed that the former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had been executed in Iraq, Indian leaders expressed condemnation and grief.
India’s External Affairs Ministry had earlier issued a statement saying that they hope Saddam Hussein’s execution statement will be revoked.
CPI-(M) leader D Raja said the entire country must condemn this act. “We had earlier opposed to his execution. We always maintained that the whole trial was absurd. India had hoped to demand a moral right for Saddam, however, now that he has been executed it is indeed a condemnable act,Raja told CNN-IBN.
Our Government will have to get up and condemn this execution. India should not succumb to any pressure on account of foreign policy matter,†he added.
It is being said that the execution is likely to impact not just the Iraqi people but also most countries in West Asia. “It is not just the question of minority community being impacted. We do not agree with the way imperialist powers are acting in West Asia. This will affect our political processes in a big way. It will have impact not just India but on entire world,†said the CPI-(M) leader.
Former external affairs minister Natwar Singh condemned Saddam’s execution and said the Prime Minister should condemn it too. “Saddam should have been spared and given life imprisonment. This will arouse a lot of violence and call for an adverse reaction from the Islamic world for decades,” he said.
On India’s stand on the execution, Singh
said that India should continue to follow it’s independent foreign policy. As for what Saddam’s legacy would be, Singh said he would be known as a ‘hero’ for a large part of the Muslim world.
Najma Heptulla, Former Deputy Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha told CNN-IBN that it is the Iraqi people who must decide whether the execution has been right or not. “I knew him (Saddam Hussein) and had met him many times on various occasions. Iraqi people should decide now whether his executions has been right or wrong. I have not lived under his regime,†she said.
Ironically the reports of Saddam’s execution come at a time when the Haj pilgrimage is about to start. In fact according to the Iraqi law, no execution must take place on a religious day. Saturday, December 30 being a holy day for Sunnis (Saddam himself was a Sunni) and the commencement of Haj pilgrimage that starts this month shows that perhaps his hanging was hushed up and carried out almost secretly to avoid possibility of any further conflict on the issue.
To die on a holy day is good, but certainly not to be killed on a holy day,said Najma Heptulla.