It is not every day that you get up to genuine breaking news on TV. November 21 was one such day.

Kasab executed.

Justice done; one 26/11 terror attack file closed. Or so one would have thought. Till “your channel” took over. Nation celebrates Kasab hanging, it said.

Soon, quoting agency reports, firstpost.com reported “impromptu street side celebrations in Ahmedabad, Gorakhpur and Agra after news of Kasab‘s hanging spread”.

PTI, meanwhile, reported that people had started crowding in front of Yerawada jail and a group of Shiv Sena workers raised slogans of ‘Vande Mataram’.

A report on DNA newspaper’s website quoted Shiv Sena MP and party spokesperson Sanjay Raut: "I congratulate the Maharashtra government and I believe this is true shraddhanjali for Balasaheb (Thackeray). He had been demanding death for Kasab till his last breath.”

With the ground taken off its feet by the sudden execution, BJP spokespersons were initially rattled on how to react but soon found composure and came on TV. They welcomed the execution but with a rider: similar sentence should be meted out to Afzal Guru, the man convicted of the 2001 Parliament attack.

Social media, too, was flooded with messages — cagey and cautious to downright celebratory.

So what are we celebrating? An execution, and one carried out by the state. Without getting on a moral high ground, a few quick posers:

1. Do we enjoy killing killers? Are we a ‘killer state’?

2. Are those celebrating votaries of summary execution, or encounter killings?

3. If hanging Kasab sends a message of deterrence to other would-be or wannabe terrorists and suicide bombers, were they deterred by the gunning down of nine other accomplices who landed in Mumbai and unleashed terror on the city starting November 26, 2008? (In fact, a flash ‘breaking news’ on Reuters site says a senior Lashkar commander has already called Kasab a "hero who will inspire more attacks”.)

It is no one’s argument that capital punishment be barred. Neither is it India’s stand. In fact, as Governance Now notes elsewhere (link), the execution comes hours after India refused to ratify a UN General Assembly draft resolution calling for abolition of death penalty.

Stressing that each state has the sovereign right to determine its own legal system, India said in its explanation of the vote: “The draft resolution sought a moratorium on executions. India could not support the text in its present form.”

That’s as rational an argument as you can get.

Agreed terrorists are not civilised people whom we should call home and discuss their killings over a cup of tea. But equally, there is little need to roll up the sleeves, pump up the adrenaline and shout zindabad/murdabad. Killing is not an enjoyable, celebratory act. Neither should it be. It’s essential, yes. It needs to be done once in a while, agreed. But minus the triumph and gloating.

November 26, 2008 was a Wednesday, as is today. As Naseeruddin Shah’s character said in the film ‘A Wednesday’, “They asked us this question on a Friday, repeated it on Tuesday ... I'm just replying on Wednesday.”

Let’s leave it at that. It’s just India’s cold reply to perpetrators of terror, not end of a triumphant game.