A pernicious equivalence (Updated)

Update at end of post

I must admit that there is something I find deeply troubling about Sarabjit affair.

The minor one is of course the propensity of BJP to turn anything and everything into an opportunity to bait our PM. Now I am hardly a fan of Manmohan Singh, but this kind of juvenile, knee jerk behaviour hardly behooves a party which leads a nationalist movement. Sadly this is something which the Delhi Darbar which holds the sway in BJP doesn't wish to acknowledge.

But the more troubling aspect is communal equivalence between Sarabjit and Afzal Guru. Now Afzal Guru has been found guilty after due process of law, and unwillingness of UPA government to carry out sentence to appease Muslim vote bank is shameful, to say the least.

However the demand that Afzal be hanged in lieu of Sarabjit is astonishing to say the least. I can understand the need of retribution, but in normal order of things law and legal process must be strictly adhered to unless the thirst for revenge wreak disorder and anarchy in the society.
Further I am discomfited by the notion that Afzal must be hanged, not because he is a criminal but because he is a Muslim and therefore by extension a Pakistani. Needless to say this kind of thinking process which associates even Indian Muslims with Pakistan (and a variant of which is observed in the argument that better relation between India and Pakistan will translate into Hindu-Muslim harmony in India), only worsens the situation.

As I have pointed out earlier that the only way that India can remain united forget aspire to become a superpower is if Indian Muslims are persuaded to discard the transnational identity of Ummah. This ill informed demand does the opposite, by its presupposition it only strengthens this allegiance, of more concern it ensures that Pakistan gets to act as a representative of Indian Muslims in what is an internal matter of India.

Update. As Frogji points out, this may be a case of rumour mongering.