VOTE FOR CRIMINALS

The European Court of Human Rights has given a ruling that prisoners in Britain are to have their voting rights which were considered to be otherwise discriminatory.

That sounds really interesting; but the question arises here that whether such a ruling will be welcomed by the people in general. Well! the answer may vary from person to person.  Some citizens who consider themselves, to be the proper law abiding citizens of the nation may not accept this on the ground that for the purpose of electing their representative they do not need the opinions of the convicts who never ever thought about the nation when they committed robbery, theft, rape, etc. They cannot have an opinion as to who and how to rule their country! With due respect to the Judiciary this requires a further analysis.

In democratic nations voting rights are given to make a healthy society and a corruption free state. These convicts, while committing crimes were never concerned about the society; rather they always caused harm to the society.

Prisoners cannot be facilitated to such an extent so as to change the actual meaning of punishment. They should not be allowed to participate in any social activity, be it forming a government or giving opinion for some policy making. I do not hold the opinion that punishments should always be punitive, rather punishment should always be reformatory but not to such an extend so as to nullify its effect on the prisoners.

I do not dispute the notion that they were being deprived of their fundamental right to vote but we cannot forget that they have been segregated from the society because they are not fit to be  in it for the time being, they can be welcomed back in it once they are  become  fit to live in it.