India does not hang its convicts easily. Ajmal Qasab, one of the 10 Pakistani terrorists who attacked Mumbai on the evening of November 26, 2008, and massacred nearly 170 people, was hanged at Pune’s Yerawada Jail early Wednesday morning, making it the first state execution since 2004. The one prior was in 1995.u00a0Even if India is choosy about executing the death penalty (only three hangings in the last 17 years despite several scores being on death row), there is little debate about the concept itself. It is as if discussing the abolition of the death penalty is taboo.

It should not be, and after the hanging of Qasab, perhaps the time has come for Indian lawmakers to at least kickstart a debate to abolish the death penalty once and for all.u00a0The death penalty is a prickly subject to debate in India because the idea of bringing people to justice is often confused with the idea of vengeance; and not with the idea of punishment. In the case of murder, that idea of vengeance translates into killing the person who has killed.u00a0Those who want to retain the death penalty also claim that it is deterrence against murder or graver crimes such as terror attacks.