A bill that was set out to empower women and make stringent laws for punishing crimes against them became all about men in the parliamentary debate on Tuesday.

The execution of Afzal Guru by the Indian state as well as the manner in which it was done, must rank as one of its most shameful acts. That death penalty should be carried out in this day and age, that too without letting his family get a last chance to see him, shows the Indian state in very poor light indeed.

Newsclick discusses the Verma Committee Report on Amendments to the Criminal Law and the subsequent Government Ordinance with Ayesha Kidwai, member of GSCASH, Jawaharlal Nehru University's Gender Sensitisation Committee against Sexual Harassment. She says the report is comprehensive and wide-ranging. It is the first document that has actually encoded women's rights and taken into account the ground level experience of women activists. Kidwai criticises the ordinance promulgated by the government, as it undercuts the wide-ranging scope and depth of the Verma Report. She also questions the government's attempt to scuttle debate in Parliament on the issues raised by the Verma Report through this ordinance.

Loud and uninformed commentary in the India media poses a danger to the debate over death penalty.

Advocate R.Vaigai comments on the brutal, inhuman and uncivilised nature of "capital punishment". The interview is in the context of the mercy petitions by three death-row convicts, Santhan, Murugan and Perarivalan in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. R.Vaigai has represented the convicts in the mercy petition in the Madras High Court.