| INDIA TODAY - The most widely read newsweekly in South Asia. | INDIA TODAY - The most widely read newsweekly in South Asia. | CURRENT ISSUE OCTOBER 30, 2006 | | | | EXCLUSIVE: OPINION POLL |  | | | No Mercy
| | | | | Mohammad Afzal Guru, awaiting capital punishment in Tihar Jail for his involvement in the attack on Parliament on December 13, 2001, has not appealed for presidential pardon. His family has met the President and sought clemency for the convicted. In Srinagar, Afzal's hometown, and elsewhere in the country, sundry separatist outfits, human rights organisations and political leaders with an eye on vote banks are united in their cause: save Afzal from the gallows. Suddenly, as the motivated clamour for mercy rises, it is as if what matters is not the enormity of his crime but the extremity of his punishment. The attack was on India. So what does urban India think of the punishment meted out to the mastermind of the crime? An India Today-ORG-MARG poll overwhelmingly endorses  | | | | | ORG-MARG conducted 1,105 street corner interviews in 10 cities across India. | | Afzal's death sentence. It shows the huge divide between liberal rhetoric and popular sentiment. And unambiguously, it puts the sanctity and supremacy of the judiciary above political and administrative expediencies. When India is terrorised, Indians want to save the life of the nation rather than the life of the terrorist.
| Should Afzal Guru, convicted for the terrorist attack on parliament, be hanged? | | YES | 78% | | NO | 21% | | Don't Know/Can't Say | 1% | |
| Should Afzal Guru be imprisoned for life? | | YES | 26% | | NO | 73% | | Don't Know/Can't Say | 1% | |
| Which of the following deserve a death penalty? | | | YES | NO | | Terrorism | 81% | 19% | | Rape, Murder of minors | 84% | 16% | | Hijacking and Kidnapping | 42% | 58% | | Murder | 71% | 29% | | Corruption | 30% | 70% | |
| Should the Government be allowed to reverse or alter judicial verdicts? | | YES | 40% | | NO | 58% | | Don't Know/Can't Say | 2% | |
| Should President, prime minister or governors have the right to pardon convicted criminals? | | YES | 55% | | NO | 44% | | Don't Know/Can't Say | 1% | | Index
| | INDIA TODAY - The most widely read newsweekly in South Asia. 
 |  |  |  | | South Asia's most influential and most read newsweekly presents the fifth Conclave India Tomorrow 2006: Bridging the Divide | | |
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