India protests Saddam's execution

India has strongly protested the hanging of Saddam Hussein, hoping that shameful manner in which the execution of the deposed Iraqi dictator was made a public spectacle – amid taunts and jeers as a leaked video footage revealed – would not affect the process of reconciliation, and restoration of peace and normalcy in Iraq.

"We had already expressed the hope that the execution would not be carried out. We are disappointed that it has been. We hope that this unfortunate event will not affect the process of reconciliation, restoration of peace and normalcy in Iraq," a brief statement issued by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said.

The Janata Dal (United) expressed apprehension that the execution of Saddam would give a "fillip" to forces of terrorism and militancy across the world.

JD(U) President Sharad Yadav said in a statement that the execution, after a "farcical trial orchestrated by the United States," was a big blow to international peace, democracy and justice.

Former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and AIADMK General Secretary J. Jayalalithaa described Saddam's execution as "outrageous" and hit out at US President George Bush for perpetrating the execution.

"This outrage has been meticuluously and successfully perpetrated, to the full satisfaction of Bush," Ms. Jayalalithaa said in a statement in Chennai.

Jayalalithaa's successor, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Muthuvel Karunanidhi has condemned the hanging, calling it "judgment in haste."

Describing Saddam's hanging as "murder," the Samajwadi Party (SP) condemned the UPA government at the Centre for extending only a "lukewarm" support to the Iraqi leader and called upon the Left to strongly oppopse the "imperialistic designs" of the United States.

"Had the Government wanted, it could have created a very strong opinion against the injustice being meted to, but the fact is that the Manmohan Singh Government is acting under the influence of the US and has accepted that the world had become unipolar," SP general secretary, Amar Singh said while addressing a press conference.

The Left parties strongly condemned the execution and said the UPA government did not raise its voice effectively bring about UN intervention and feared the hanging would lead to the break–up of Iraq.

While the CPI said the Indian government should have raised its voice more effectively to seek the UN intervention, the CPI(M) maintained the UPA government should realize that its strategic alliance with the George W. Bush administration, which is notorious
for its imperial aggrandizement, will harm India's interests.

Activists of the Communist Party of India (ML) and the Socialist Unity Centre of India demonstrated outside the American Centre in New Delhi to condemn the execution of Saddam "at the behest of the US Government."

Saddam's hanging has also evoked strong protest from the Christian community in India.

"It was most unfortunate that (Saddam) was hanged," said Cardinal Varkey Vithayathil of Ernakulam–Angamaly, head of the Syro–Malabar Church, one of the two Oriental Catholic rites in India.

"Nobody has the right to take another's life," the cardinal asserted in a two–sentence statement issued in Kerala.

In a separate interview with a private TV channel in the state, the cardinal termed Hussein's hurried execution on December 30 a denial of natural justice and a sin. He said the deposed leader was not given an opportunity to be heard.

During the 19th Plenary Assembly of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI) that concluded on January 9, Bishop Prakash Mullavarappu of Vijayawada, secretary general of the CCBI, said the "diversity in global responses to the deposed Iraqi leader's controversial execution December 30 early morning reflected the present world situation."

The Church opposes capital punishment, Bishop Mullavarappu said, adding the Vatican had appealed in early December to the authorities to reconsider executing Hussein.

The bishop stressed that the Church opposes capital punishment and recalled the opposition of the late Pope John Paul II to the military intervention in Iraq led by the United States.

The Church views the unsettled situation in West Asia "sympathetically" and hopes for their early resolutions, he said.

The Syro–Malabar Church and the smaller Syro–Malankara Church, both based in Kerala, follow Syrian Church traditions. They and the Latin rite, which follows Roman tradition, make up the Indian Catholic Church.