President Pranab Mukherjee has done the right thing in rejecting the mercy petition of Surendra Koli in the Nithari killings. Earlier too he had rejected pleas of barbaric convicts who had petitioned for mercy against the decision of the Supreme Court.
The President must now take immediate action on all the mercy petitions that are pending with the Government, and reject them.
Presidential powers over the Supreme Court for mercy could not have been meant for political purposes, to go soft on terrorists and on those who had committed heinous crimes like murder and rape. The law on terrorism and rape should be enacted in such a way that no mercy petition to the President is allowed for terrorists and rapists, once the Supreme Court awards capital punishment. Only when we take such harsh action will terrorists and rapists get a strong message that there is no place for them in India. Until then, they will continue to escape the gallows.