Death Penalty Will Prevent Hijacking?
Continuing its tradition of passing laws that has no practical use the Union Cabinet of India today approved a proposal submitted by the Civil Aviation Ministry to amend the Anti-Hijacking Act of 1982. This was announced by the Minister for Information and Broadcasting Ambika Soni.
The modified act will include the following: Section 3 and 4 of the act will be modified to include the death penalty as a punishment instead of the maximum sentence of life imprisonment and fines. The new act will also provide authorities to shoot down a hijacked plane that is heading towards a “vital” target. Authorities will now be allowed to immobilize a hijacked plane on the ground and will also oppose negotiation with the hijackers.
This amendment to the law comes on the heals of other amendments and proposals that the UPA government has made in the past six months. This includes modification to our immigration laws, the food act, the woman’s reservation bill, education bill and the right to job act. The UPA’s strategy is very clear. If there is a problem then create a new set of laws or modify the existing laws. India has more laws than most democratic nations on the planet. What India lacks is implementation of these laws. Most of the newly created laws are knee jerk reactions to current problems and does not take a long term view of the issues involved.
An Indian carrier has not been hijacked in over ten years. The last hijacking that took place (Indian Airlines Flight 814 in December 1999) took place because of security lapses in Nepal and not in India. In my opinion airline security is good in India because all passengers are physically frisked (unlike in the West where they rely on technology). Lapses can happen but it happens in nations that are spending billions of dollars on airline safety and security.
The question is will the threat of death sentence prevent hijacking? The answer is no. The terrorists of today have no problems losing their lives and taking the lives of hundreds of people along with them in order to achieve their “goals”. They do not care what the law says or not and nor do they think about what would happen to them if they are caught.
The best way to test a new law is to see whether it would have had an impact during events in the past. Post 09/11 the United States implemented a lot of laws but none of it (including fingerprinting travelers from Asia) would have prevented 09/11. 09/11 is a catastrophic failure of the system (failure to gather intelligence and assess threat, not taking the Al Qaeda threat seriously, various government agencies not communicating with each other well, government authorities not doing their jobs etc.). It is not a failure of the legal system or the existing laws.
Indian Airlines flight 814 was hijacked from Katmandu (Nepal) on its way to New Delhi. The hijackers were armed gunman. The gunman wanted the plane to head to Kandahar (Afghanistan). However, the plane had to land in Amritsar to refuel. When it landed in Amritsar the Punjab Police was already in position to storm the plane. But the crisis management group in New Delhi refused to issue the order.
They instead wanted the fuel tanker to block the path of the aircraft which it did not because the driver came to a loud halt which alerted the terrorists who then forced the plane without fuel to take off (the plane then landed in Lahore).
Why did the crisis management group in New Delhi not issue the orders to storm the plane? Is it because they were afraid of the law? They probably were concerned about public opinion and safety of passengers. They probably did not have confidence in the capabilities of Punjab Police. How come the tanker could not block the runway? The driver probably became nervous or was not properly trained.
How will the new amendments change this outcome?
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Category: News & Government
Getting caught is surely not on their agenda!!!
We need to pass many other laws…how about a law that says…
-being a middle man for agri products is a crime…coz the farmer has to get his due
-no agri product will be allowed to rot
oh and so many other TRIVIA
Agreed Nalini. Real laws and reforms will never be enacted.
will see when it happens, making law is one thing and going along with it is somethign else. there is death sentence for terrorism too. But look at what is happening the guy who killed so many in mumbai …
We make laws , we are good at it but following it Is a different thing. Our politicans are so corrupt they probably have a loop hole around it too.. cause most of these things cant happen with the someone knowing ..
Law should be Death penalty.. within a month of trial at most…
Bikram … there should be a law against incompetence because that is what the Indian government is.
the biggest problem in India is that first we take years to plan somthing and then when we think that implmentation should happen….that doesn’t. So, first its fault planning and second is no implementation!
Welcome Vishal. It took us ten years after the last hijacking to come up with this plan. And still it is full of holes.