EDGE 1

2 EDGE Courtesy: Medha Srivastava (Image)

EDGE 3 Courtesy: Medha Srivastava (Image) Contributors EDGE STORY ATTRIBUTIONS Shyam Saran Indian diplomat, former Foreign Secretary to the Government of India, Columnist. Shashi Tharoor Indian politician, former International diplomat, former UN Under-secretary General and writer. KK Shailaja Ministre of Heath and Social Welfare of Kerala. Palagummi Sainath Journalist, founder editor of PARI (People's Archive of Rural India). Shekhar Gupta President of Editors' Guild of India, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Print. Liz Mathews Associate Editor of The Indian Express. Dr Deepti Bhandari Neuro-Clinical Psychologist. Mona Lalwani Executive Producer of Vox.com. Sharda Jha Lawyer (Fresh Practitioner), Kolkata High Court. Special thanks to: The Himalayan Blunder Authored by late JP Dalvi, Brigadier of 7 Infantry Battalion in 1962 Indo-China war. ART ATTRIBUTIONS Fine Art America, Medha Srivastava, StudyIq.com, CNBC.com, National Geographic, Vox.com, Shivdigital (Twitter), Project 39A, nypost.com, flashbak.com, thehauterfly.com, india.mongabay.com, ship-technology.com, thewire.com, Shutterstock.com, Freepik.com, indiandefencereview.com Volume 1 | Edition 1 | March | Pages 44 All rights reserved. For any queries/feedback, email [email protected] The dawn of 2020 spilled an array of misfortunate seizures and the world, fist-tied with each other, had to inevitably bear. The unforgiving pandemic outbreak crippled humanity of its defensively-praised political, economic and social stability and the worst ever labour force migration that is putting the civil and administrative endurance under unprecedented tests. The typhus left little yet substantial room and clock for addressing other major fundamental crises like unemployment, poverty, gender discrimination and civil unrest. Amidst the disastrous melting pot occurrences in India and across, this edition encompasses light-headed genres coupled with a brief cognizance of the burning national issues. The aim is to soothe the already antagonised and wrenched psychology of the readers. A large headroom has been dedicated to the much ado fared justice given to Nirbhaya by virtue of the 7-year-long court proceedings – the ruling and legitimacy contentions are elaborately fleshed out. Further ahead, the juxtaposition of the prevalent social issues with lateral thinking churned out substantial contents including the historic intertwining of zoonotic diseases with the travel amenities including the aircrafts and cruise ships, and the era of neo-expressionism seasoned among the youth. An exclusive interview of 2020 Padma Shri awardee from Karnataka, Tulasi Gowda – with her non-formal experiences of indigenosity and single-handed planting of over one lakh saplings, all thriving – has been penned. The lesser spoken history of China’s legalisation and regularisation of wildlife farming and wet markets has been researched and presented with veracity. Previous discourse records suggest that territorial dominance and aggression along LAC and South China Sea is something very intrinsic to China. In the behest to sweep its blunders regarding the containment of Covid-19 under the rug, the fanatic communist regime is expected to come up with border-related blusters - the 'unclear' contentious frontline issue that, since 1962, remains unresolved. Receiving special references from the Battalion Commander during 1962 Indo-China war, JP Dalvi's book The Himalayan Blunder, the early 60s India-led blunders, underlying the India China relations, is proposed in one such research-based article. Every country is bound to have internal and external differences. Although, the approach with which the issues are dealt, determines its desirable progress. This edition throws an unbiased torch on some unexplored areas; the vision purely being public awareness. However, the ball of perceptions rests in your court. EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Geetanjali Jha

4 EDGE INSIDE Covid-19 Outbreak The Big and Small Allegory of Destruction 38 Contemporary Global Indices 2020 and India's rankings Dig The Dead Neo-expressionism: Revisiting the F***ery of the F-word 8 COVER STORY 16 28 Social Issue Nirbhaya Case: Ought to Determine 'So Shall You Reap'? 31 Interview Meeting Tulasi Gowda: Dubbed as the 'Encyclopaedia of the forest' 30 Book Review Funny Weather: Art in an Emer- gency authored by Olivia Laing No retribution could recompense what 23-year old Jyoti Singh (renamed as Nirbhaya) and her family had suffered and lost but the judiciary fulfilled its legal responsibility to administer justice to the deceased victim by making a lamdmark judgement of executing the convicts by hanging. Is death penalty a necessary evil to check sexual crime rates in India or is it just a knee-jerk to placate public outrage?victs

EDGE 5 INSIDE 38 6 Politics “Incompetent" Trinity Led a “Wave of Bitter Shame” Ethics Love Her. But Leave Her Wild Probe Why is Chinese Wet Market 36 Explicitly Exotic? Social Issue Nirbhaya Case: Ought to Determine 'So Shall You Reap'? Courtesy: Fine Art America Book Review Funny Weather: Art in an Emer- gency authored by Olivia Laing 34 Sci-kick Soon Earth Will Have Her Personal Cleaning Staff 13 Brain Aerobics Quantifying cranial flexibility with fun No retribution could recompense what 23-year old Jyoti Singh (renamed as Nirbhaya) and her family had suffered and lost but the judiciary fulfilled its legal responsibility to administer justice to the deceased victim by making a lamdmark judgement of executing the convicts by hanging. Is death penalty a necessary evil to check sexual crime rates in India or is it just a knee-jerk to placate public outrage?victs

6 EDGE ETHICS From the womb of dusk arises the dawn. As the Covid-19 contagion led humans to self-quarantine, it profusely relaxed the draconian curfew inflicted on the wildlife. Noida’s busiest Sector-18 spotted Nilgai strolling on the vacant road. In another incident, a critically endangered Malabar civet was sighted in Kozhikode, Kerala. The virus that hurled the so called “civilised” human fraternity into house-arrest, welcomed the “wild” non-sapiens in the urban-lanes. Not one but many such dactylonomy-failing stories grabbed media space across the world. Racoons walking in the Central Park in New York, sea lion seen sitting on a sidewalk in Argentina, giraffes munching the city trees in South Africa, star fishes surfacing on the deserted beaches in UK, mentally assaulted zoo inmates looking cheerful and less aggressive in the absence of visitors and kangaroos exploring the streets of Adelaide – have unusually become a regular still ecstatic sight during national lockdown. Pretty impressive right! Queuing some other jaw-droppers. Almost after three decades, the Himalayan’s Dhauladhar mountain range could be viewed clearly from Jalandhar. Definitely, it is not the vision of the human eye that has suddenly advanced I assume. What humans couldn’t consciously achieve despite pouring tons of money, effort and intellect, their abstinence from clustering, unconsciously attained. The water quality of the ‘most-polluted’ holy Ganga recorded ‘fit for drinking’ quotient. No, not miraculous – but no industrial effluents and literally, no pilgrim wastes. In November 2019, Delhi scored a deadly record of 858 AQI enough to weaken the lungs of a-day-born baby equal to 40-50 cigarettes. However, this human-spilled menace somewhat met a resurrectional spell. Owing to the national transportation and industrial standstill, the Air Quality Index (AQI) of 95 cities including Delhi – have unexpectedly improved. The nature seems to be attempting to reclaim its pristine adolescence by escaping man's retrogressive desires. Now, here lies the contention: Would the star fishes be allowed to bask under the sun peacefully if humans flocked on the shores? Or would the deer be let free to venture in the urbanised streets with tranquillity? Obviously, NASA’s equipment have not faltered to record a sharp dip in air pollution in India after the lockdown was announced. We vividly speak of our ‘fundamental human rights’. But how many times did we ‘intentionally’ stand the test of mutual co-existence on earth? Scientific bodies like the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) confirmed that our anthropogenic carbon foot-printing, since the inception of the industrial era in 1950s, are 100% responsible for the over-limits rise in global warming. Fuelling the fire, reckless dumping of plastic wastes on land Fawn (baby deer): “Mom! Let’s quickly plan a summer trip. These bipeds might end up on the streets anytime now.” ...And this is how Indians witnessed Sambar deers swaggering in the streets of Haridwar. Wildlife tourism seemed to have emerged as a new trend. You sit in your balcony, alone; feeling unproductively wasted, consternating the zoonotic menace. Then did the exuberant bird chirps, resonating in the face of an infant dawn, suddenly jolter you to explore its intricate fabrics? Watching the heavy-weight clouds approach with the blessings of the sea, you frown, pop-open your umbrella and walk-away, hurriedly. Halt the time and listen to the hysteric music as the rain drops strum the earth’s surface. Did you just puff industrial smoke on the spatial landscapes where the winks of star constellations await to flirt with you? It invites you to realise the privilege – to barter your current post-covid plans with nature’s embrace in the depth of national silence. Let the sensory utopia gush in. Why did you quickly ignore and detach ourselves from the lap of the natural paradise to posit and celebrate the dystopian urbanity? LOVE Her. But LEAVE Her Wild. Leave the roads; Take the trails ~ Pythagoras

EDGE 7 and in the oceans have severely threatened terrestrial and marine ecosystems recklessly. It is misfortunate to accept that we generate 300 million tonnes of plastic waste every year. Is this what we really want to pass as a legacy to our successors? A heap of plastic-poison and a destruction-triggered ambiance? Well! These insensitive activities do, by all means, project our predatory disposition. Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed As rightly advised by Mahatma Gandhi, mankind is creating an “exclusive universe” for itself that is egocentrically downplaying the existence of marine, flora and fauna on earth in the behest of personal interests. The pursuit of our relentless lifestyle and never-ending modernity-driven consumerist, transportation and industrial demands might end up turning into a miscarriage of earth’s carrying capacity. Ignorance is the root and stem of all evils ~ Plato People argue that the responsibility of ecosystem preservation lies under the purview of the ruling administration. Agreed! However, brick by brick, a house is built. Unawareness or purposive ignorance to identify and accept the vulnerabilities and threat to life and livelihood of species on earth is certain to trigger a permanent ecological dis-balance and damage. Individual proactive participation is the urgent need of the hour. We call ourselves the most intellectual creatures on this planet. Hence, we ought to advance our behaviour and actions to, at the least, actively share the contributory-load of personal consciousness for mitigating the environmental disintegration at an individual level. Walk as if you are kissing the earth with your feet ~ Thich Nhat Hanh Nature’s attempt of self-revival during the unprecedented global lockdown is no-brainer to make us realise its wake-up call. We cannot afford to snooze it anymore. There can be no justifiable denying that we ‘unanimously’ owe the blame. The blame of substantiating the idiom: “What we sow is what we reap”. Climate change and environmental degradation will cause mankind extinction, if not acted upon immediately. Unfortunately, along with ourselves, we are risking the lives of a trillion innocent species. The survival of no living being is an ounce less worthy than our own. Bashed by ignorance and conceit, we fail to accept that. There is something that we should always remember for the better: “Earth isn’t something that we own. It is something we share. Let’s have like its guest, not like an emperor.” E What we see is God percolating through nature ~ Swami Vivekanand Ancient Indian culture – through paintings, architecture, sculptures, fables and even religious – have always symbolised nature and animals as an integrally intertwined spirit of our beauty, wisdom, opulence and dignity. Unfortunately, this age human brains are battling for all the wrong reasons. Drowned in different shades of tradition and religion, we clash with each other with lathis and guns to superficially safeguard our doctrines. Instead can’t we unite to vouch for ecosystem fanaticism? “Man serves the interest of no creature except himself,” said George Orwell. Not all humans fail to unconditionally embrace the beauty but not all disapprove whenever the modesty of our mother earth is wilfully outraged. What can we be remembered as, a prolific curse? Constructive retreat is hard still possible. Generosity towards all creatures as our own; avoiding the misuse of electricity, water, greenhouse gases-releasing air-conditioners; discouraging the dependency on plastic packaging and private vehicles; evading from littering beaches and streets and encouraging afforestation – are the irrefutable keys that would let no stones unturned for earth’s multidimensional replenishment.

8 EDGE Covid-19 originated from the seafood market in the port city of Wuhan in Hubei province of China. However, owing to the international travel facilities including aircrafts and cruise ships, the typhus spread like a wildfire globally, indiscriminate of the culture and geography. Travel amenities have allegorically facilitated pathogen-spill across the world. Since time immemorial, ships - passenger or trade - have symbolically reiterated their potential as the carries of trade, culture and also ‘life-claiming diseases’. Hurricaning the world, Covid-19 – a mysterious stain of corona family of viruses, has claimed 4,989 lives and infected 134,918 confirmed cases in 127 countries across the globe, as of March 13, 2020. Within a span of a month from its first report, the virus infected 37,590 and claimed the lives of 800 globally. China faced the most deadly impact of the coronavirus outbreak resulting in 3,177 deaths and 80,814 confirmed cases, till March 13, 2020. Initially confused with pneumonia, China reported the first unusual confirmed case with WHO on December 8, 2019. Owing to the malicious spread of coronavirus, what constituted as “Public Health Emergency of International Concern” by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on 30th January, 2020, has been declared a “Pandemic” on 11th March, 2020. The ‘two-weeks’ incubation period of the virus, that many a times becomes undiscernible in a patient, makes the contagion difficult to be diagnosed and restricted – worsening the scope of its spread. Hence, with 3.4% mortality rate, as estimated by WHO, as on March 3rd, 2020, the fatality of coronavirus disease lies more in its rapid spread. Today, all 118 affected countries are religiously practicing a domestic and trans-border lockdown of people and goods to prevent further contamination of the unaffected masses. Not only has the coronavirus caused a health menace world-wide, but also has spread anti-Chinese sentiments of xenophobia and racism across the globe; thereby collapsing the Chinese economy and disrupted global economic flow. Nations where population and hygiene both are somewhat proportionately inverse have contracted the coronavirus geometrically. Presently, while China has significantly been able to contain the propagation of infection, Italy ranks second as Covid-19 outbreak devastatingly soared the cases of death from 36 to 233 over a week’s time. Confirmed infection doubled from 2,500 to 5,800. COVID-19 OUTBREAK The Big and Small Allegory of Destruction In 2017, Bill Gates wrote about the biggest threats to the humanity today. He mentioned ‘nuclear war’, ‘climate change’ and ‘biological threats’, precisely pandemics.

EDGE 9 Coronavirus is not a stand-alone tale of pathogen-inflicted mass persecutions. While mankind has always been submissive to the notorious pandemics, time stood throughout the historical occurrences to narrate the trait-similarities among different pandemics that occurred centuries apart. Whether it was the Justinian plague of the 6th century, the Black Death struck in the 14th century or the existing 21st century’s coronavirus – international trade and social routes, increasing urban population and lack of medical knowledge have been the three major factors that facilitated the rapid outbreak of pandemics across the globe since humanity has documented itself. The aviation developments and introduction of passenger aircrafts in the early 20th century has added a ‘mellow’ to the ‘marsh’. The biblical references establish a connecting link between pathogen outbursts with that of transport convenience. Since time immemorial, ships – passenger or trade – have been found to symbolically reiterate their potential as bearers of trade, culture and life-claiming disease. Present day luxurious cruise ships that host multi-nationality people, stationing at different destinations across the world, not only inevitably haven but also act as runners of the outbreak of deadly pathogens too. One such infamous example that gained much criticism for spreading the already deadly coronavirus outspread across the world is the Diamond Princess. LUXURY SHIPS AND THE TYPHUS LINK Passengers quarantined inside Diamond Princess Courtesy: CNBC.com The US-operated and British-flagged maritime cruise line the Diamond Princess, as recorded by worldometers.info, has been labelled as the 11th most Covid-19-affected place in the world. The 14-day round trip luxurious cruise departed from Yokohama in Japan on January 20, 2020, with 2,666 guests of diverse nationalities and 1,045 crew on board. It transformed into an extensive breeding ground for coronavirus when a guest, who embarked in Yokohama on January 20, travelled for five days and disembarked in Hong Kong on January 25 was tested positive for coronavirus on February 1, six days after off-boarding the ship. He transmitted the contagion to hundreds of people onboard and beyond in Hong Kong, undeliberate of his visibly symptom-less disease. Soon after, on February 4, 2020, the Japan Health Ministry took the charge of thoroughly reviewing the health status of the guests, harbouring and quarantining the ship from the rest of the world at Yokohama. Ten people confirmed to have contracted coronavirus when the first phase of tests were

10 EDGE conducted on February 4, 2020 itself. But this decision turned out to be a chaotic and miserably-failed strategy that swept Diamond Princess with a virulent surprise. The ‘inadequate isolation’ measures taken inside the cruise and the time gap during coronavirus detection tests downplayed in the grave possibility of the Covid-19 outbreak inside the cruise. While the coronavirus negative patients were slowly disembarked from the cruise over the passage of time, roughly 700 coronavirus-infected patients remained ship-imprisoned since one-and-a-half month – where 8 people died due to inadequate medical facilities and 364 remain actively infected. Moreover, the claims of disembarking the virus negative people from the cruise in the light of “ongoing risk” of 14-day incubation period met a repulsive thrust. Similarly, the World Dreams has been quarantined in Hong Kong after 8 passengers contracted coronavirus. The Royal Caribbean’s Anthem of the Seas cruise ship has also been kept under quarantine conditions in New Jersey in the United States. "Most of the sailors aboard were found dead," the history.com reported about the Black Death pandemic. An apostrophic disease that lethally wiped out a third of Europe’s population, infamously known as the Black Death, remains one of the most bubonic pandemic of the 14th century. But the hook is how did something that is known to have originated in China in Asia – that hit India, Middle East (Persia, Egypt and Syria) and Africa killing millions and then struck the European continent? In October, 1347, “when twelve ships from Black Sea docked at Sicilian port of Messina,” most of the sailors aboard were found dead, the history.com report said. Soon after, the ships also struck France and North Africa relaying the terrifying plague globally. In the 13th and 14th century, China remained trade-dominant in the Southeast and Central Asian market through the Silk Route. This ancient trade route traded silk and spices from China to Baghdad, that passed further through the Black Sea region (Crimea and Byzantine Empire, now known as Istanbul, the then crossroad between Europe and Asia) and linked China with the Italian merchants for an expanded European trade – not only intertwining isolated civilisations but also creating international land and maritime trade networks of goods and services among them. A union of nations established with the string of commerce. HISTORY FILES THE TYPHUS LINK Silk route spread over the global space Courtesy: National Geographic “Healthy and infected patients are sharing the same deck and dining room...” US national stuck on Diamond Princess “We are in a petri-dish. We are stuck in a box that is already contaminated.” New Zealand national stuck on Diamond Princess

EDGE 11 While gold, silver and wool was traded to the east, silk went westward from where it derives its name. This Plague, caused by a bacterium got spread by the black rats in the ships and vectored by insects, propelled an astonishing wipe out in 1347, killing one-fifth of the world’s population within four years. The conveyor of the deadly Justinian Plague of the mid-6th century, that is known to have wiped-out almost 50% population of European population, were merchant ships. Owing to the flourished silk route trades, the growing economy during the medieval era led to a gradual rise in urban population giving way to crowded neighbourhood and accumulation and mismanagement of wastes and drains. Eventually, this led to unsanitary living conditions acting as catalysts for the incubation of vicious illness-causing pathogens and making people highly vulnerable to disease. Moreover, the scarce scientific developments by the medical sciences left the people vulnerable to the fast-mutating “mysterious” variants of pathogens. This lack of knowledge and unavailability of vaccines could quickly prevent and treat the spread of the disease neither in the 14th century Black Death nor in the 21st century MERS, SARS and the current globally chaotic Covid-19. Undergoing medical researchers are attempting to find a breakthrough to the coronavirus fatality. Though the notorious pathogen involved in all three pandemic – Black Death (1347-1351), Justinian Plague and coronavirus are different but their relay grounds are common: none other than the land, sea trade route and in the 21st century through airspace too. Likening to the novelty of coronavirus, the Brazilian scientists have discovered a mysterious virus named as the ‘Yaravirus’ that comprises of 90 percent of “never found genes before”. Viruses have an exemplary replicating capacity to infect plants, animals, fungi and even in bacteria. A lot of pathogens infect an animal host like rodents and mutate and spread among humans. As antibiotic don’t work on viruses, the treatment quotient becomes uncertain and science helpless. Since Yaravirus can become a possible cause for a lethal endemic like the coronavirus later in future, the researchers have initiated experimenting with it to understand and proactively identify its genomic >[email protected]. We will feature first ten stories sent to us before the dusk of March, 2020 on the EDGE website. www.sudoku.com www.brainbashers.com What word in the English language does the following: the first two letters signify a male, the first three letters signify a female, the first four letters signify a great, while the entire world signifies a great woman. What is the word? ANSWERS SUDOKU HITORI

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EDGE 15 Global Gender Parity Index 2020 In an annual report released by the World Economic Forum, gender disparity across the world is analysed. It is based on four parameters: economic participation, educational attainment, political empowerment and health. Yemen at rank 153rd is labelled worst in gender parity. KEY INSIGHTS Rank 1: Iceland. Men and women share power in decision-making, at home and at workplace, as opposed to male dominance. Rank 2: Norway Rank 3: Finland Rank 142 India holds a position of 112 among 153, dropping four ranks below from last year, indicating a poor performance for engaging women participation in economic and political landscape. The report suggests that India is the only country that has an economic gender gap larger than the political gender gap. The score difference of 0.209 separates Iceland’s 1st rank from India’s 112th rank. INDIA Global Hunger Index 2019 Assessing and publishing the report of 117 nations, Irish aid agency Concern Worldwide and German organisation Welt Hunger Hilfewas, classified undernourishment on four indicators: child mortality, undernourishment, child wasting (weight for age) and child stunting. The report also analyses the relationship between inadequate food production and security concerns and impacts of extreme climate vulnerabilities. KEY INSIGHTS Rank 1: Seventeen nations, including Belarus, Cuba, Kuwait, Romania, Turkey, Ukraine, Turkey and others score rank 1. Rank 18: Brazil Rank 19: Argentina Rank 102Despite being the fastest growing economies in the world, India at 102, ranks below Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan in the hunger index. The GHI report emphasises, “India is suffering from a serious hunger problem”. Conflict-torn countries like Yemen has fared better than India in eliminating hunger. E INDIA Courtesy: appliedunificationism.com

16 EDGE Is Hanging an Ultimate Solution or Judicial Injustice? Rape is draconian and the convicts satanic, yet the subsequent punishment appears inhumane. Reiterating the basis of the verdict, the Delhi High court justified the gang-rape and brutalised murder of Nirbhaya on December 16, 2012 by issuing a black warrant to the four convicts. In 2013, Mukesh Singh, Akshay Thakur, Pawan Singh and Vinay Kumar were awarded capital punishment – to be hanged to death. SOCIAL ISSUE Nirbhaya Case: Ought to Determine ‘So Shall You Reap’? A tolerated shame wrapped in the 2020 report of National Crime Record Bureau states that a woman gets RAPED in India every fifteen minutes

EDGE 17 Image courtesy: shivdigital (twitter) Is Hanging an Ultimate Solution or Judicial Injustice? Nirbhaya Case: Ought to Determine ‘So Shall You Reap’? A tolerated shame wrapped in the 2020 report of National Crime Record Bureau states that a woman gets RAPED in India every fifteen minutes

18 EDGE Is death penalty a necessary evil to check sexual crime rates in India or is it just a knee-jerk to pacify the public outrage? No retribution could recompense what 23-year old Jyoti Singh (renamed as Nirbhaya) and her family had suffered and lost but the judiciary fulfilled its legal responsibility to administer justice to the deceased victim. The magnitude of satisfaction and hope that spread on Nirbhaya’s mother’s face reciprocated equal but opposite vibes of dismay among the family of the perpetrators. The latter’s existence seemed to have torn apart with one heinous act of their beloved one. Akshay Thakur had a 2-year old son when the verdict was passed. This sword of Damocles dangling on the neck of the convicts created polarised public opinions and sparked humanity-driven global debate of capital punishment – a process criticised to be thinly rupturing the clouds between legal justice and moral capability. While millions stood in favour of the verdict calling it an ‘act of deterrence’ for the future criminal minds; the rest grounded against the very idea of ‘victim-centric’ emotional decision of death penalty. This discussion regarding the constitutionality of death penalty has surfaced frequently time and over. May it be during Afsal Guru, Yakub Memon or Nirbhaya, public opinion got scissored into bipolarity in the context of ‘fairness and reasonability’ of death penalty and the need of its immediate abolition, irrespective of any crime. Specific to the current burning and unresolved issue of Nirbhaya, the human right activists find death penalty unconvincing to cater justice to Nirbhaya. Irrespective of the severity of the crime, they advocate for commuting death sentence to life imprisonment and psychological reformation instead. Former President APJ Abdul Kalam, on an occasion, had once said, “I’m not sure a human system is competent to take away a life” favouring an absolute abolition of death sentence in India. Now, the herculean task left for the pillars of democracy to evaluate is whether prescribing the span of a perpetrator’s life a legal obligation for the Indian judiciary towards the victim or not? Death penalty with the global glasses The former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon’s remarks reflect that death sentence “undermines human dignity” and hence should have “no place in the 21st century”. Considering death sentence to be a dehumanising act that deprives individuals from their fundamental right to life, a total of 106 nations have abolished death penalty de jure for all crimes indiscriminately Courtesy: Project 39A

EDGE 19 (Amnesty International Report, 2018). While 8 countries retain death sentence only for serious crimes, 28 countries remain abolitionist by practice not by law. 56 countries retain death penalty indiscriminately by law and practice where execution methods include: shooting, hanging, electrocution, lethal injections and beheading for reasons of drug offenses, treason, rape, murder and terrorism. Two death penalty in Iran are also known to have been cruelly imposed by stoning. The most prominent countries to have conducted the highest executions are China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam and Iraq. Among 690 executions reported in 20 nations in 2018, the latter four nations are said to have carried about 78% of the global executions. Owing to China’s confidential policies, the execution statistics could be efficiently guaranteed by no research organisation so far. A recent 2017 figures show that some of the countries like Bangladesh, North Korea, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Iran and Vietnam, the international trial proceedings for death penalty criminals have not been adequately met and therefore remain unethically binding. The abolitionists of death sentence claim that that no research has so far confirmed that awarding death sentence to criminals amounts to deterrence – instil fear in the minds of the future perpetrators to contemplate the legal consequence before committing a crime – resulting in no drop in crime rates in nations that uphold death penalties. The best example being Saudi Arabia, where the punishment for rape is treated at par with terrorism, have undeterred rape cases. How India bolsters death penalty Indian debates about death penalty attempt to figure out if at all death penalty is a ‘civilised way’ of justice or has it become a ‘dehumanising act’ of punishment. Despite the reassuring agreement of almost 55% of United Nation states to abolish death penalty, India firmly rooted its stance in UN General Assembly resolution of 2012 by persistently voting against the draft that seeked an end to capital punishment. India executes the convicts by “hanging by the neck until death”. Person guilty of crimes including waging war against the state, terrorism, falsely implicating an SC/ST person in a capital case, aiding or abetting Sati practice, rape/gang rape and murder have been kept paramount in determining the existential fate of the offender. Later, in 2018, after a series of rape crimes against minors surfaced across India, especially the infamous Kathua gang rape and murder of an 8-year-old girl Asifa Bano of Jammu and Kashmir and Unnao rape case in Uttar Pradesh, the Indian government amended the POCSO Act of 2012 to include rape/gang rape of a minor below 16 under the purview of death penalty category. Amid the growing awareness towards the abolition of death sentence to a criminal and a dramatic drop in global execution by 31%, India imposed a highest number of death sentence in the last two decades, 2018 report by Amnesty International emphasised. Out of which, majority of the offenders hail from Uttar Pradesh, Haryana (90) and Madhya Pradesh (73). The states with no pronouncement of death sentence at all are Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Sikkim, Tripura and Jammu and Kashmir. One of the prolonged unresolved social issue in India resolves around women safety. Whether a minor or an adult, in rural or urban cities – every year cases of sexual abuses by predators are registered in thousands. Though rape is non-bailable in nature, due to lack of substantial evidence or lose proximity to cops, politicians and panchayat heads, the perpetrators are released with either no or minimum punishment. Justice Verma Committee constituted to analyse and suggest legal reforms related to woman sexual assaults in 2016 recommended the Indian government against death penalty as punishment to the rapists even in the rarest of the rare cases. However, they demanded a speedy trial, an extension of the minimum imprisonment duration from 7 years to 10 years and India has executed 16 prisoners since 1991 and 4 prisoners in the 21st century - precisely Dhananjoy Chatterjee in 2004, Ajmal Kasab in 2012, Afzal Guru in 2013 and Yakub Memon in 2015.

20 EDGE a life imprisonment to “entire natural life of the convict”. India has executed as many as 720 prisoners since 1947, 16 prisoners since 1991 and 4 prisoners since 2000. The last execution was of 1993 Mumbai bombings convict, Yakub Memon, on 30th July 2015. Considering National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report 2019, the rate of sexual offences have been sporadically increasing over a decade in India. The number of rapes reported to the police in 2012 was 24,206. Despite the pronouncement of black warrant to Nirbhaya’s convicts in 2013, the sexual assaults didn’t drop. Instead, it steeped by 39.25% than the then previous year .i.e. almost 33,707 rapes took place in 2013. In 2018, around 33, 977 victims registered to have faced sexual abuse across rural and urban India. All these ground realities circumscribe the same question – Is death penalty an attempt to placate the public voice? Death sentences awarded India in 2018 Technically speaking, India has shown reluctance towards awarding death penalties. However, the proportion of death sentences handed out by the sessions courts have sharply increased over the years. There has been a 34.94% rise in the pronouncement of death penalties to the convicts by the district court since 2016. “Death Penalty in India: Annual Statistics” report of Project 39A, an initiative of National Law University, Delhi states that out of all the crimes that amount to death penalty in India, about 52.94% sexual offenders have been handed out death sentence by sessions court across India in 2019. 17 among 26 cases were confirmed with capital punishment by the High Court IN 2018. However, only 4 Nirbhaya convicts received the apex nod of the Supreme Rape cases registered in India in 2018 Court to be hanged, on the "rarest of the rare" ground. The decision of which is still pending and triggering conflicts on multidisciplinary grounds by various intellectual brigades. Courtesy: Project 39A Courtesy: Project 39A Intractable sexual offences on women

EDGE 21 Dismantling the idea of death warrant in context of Nirbhaya’s case The idea of eradicating sexual offenses against women is weighed in two ways when it comes to India. Firstly, by equating justice to retribution where people explicitly demand the execution of the rapists. The abolitionists of death penalty consider it to be “an eye for an eye” approach. Secondly, by equating justice to opportunity where a reformational approach to provide them a benefit of doubt and rectify the mindset of the criminals who hold equal right to life as anyone else. The retentionists of death penalty argue that anything short of death penalty is an “injustice” to the victim and non-deterrence of law in the event of crime. The most infamous and barbaric case of Nirbhaya has drawn invisible differences between the judiciary and constitutional clauses to juggle the fate of the 4 convicts. There already exists a flaming outrage among the general public to hang the rapists and “teach the culprits a stern lesson”. Statements of “public lynching” of the rapists diffusing from the walls of the parliament, including Samajwadi party senior MP Jaya Bachchan, fuel the clamour erupted among the general masses. While some scholars believe death penalty is a political tool to appease the enthusiastic voters, other laureates and human rights practitioners call it inconclusive, irreparable and arbitrary in nature that breach Article 21 – the right to life and personal liberty of the offenders. Death sentence to Nirbhaya’s convicts fall under the orbit of retribution and hence, all the arguments juggle among the latter three: Rehabilitation, Retribution and Deterrence. “If killing the killers is justice, why don’t we argue for raping the rapists, robbing the thieves the thieves, setting on fire the houses of arsonists?” theprint. in argues. Objectives of punishment The 5 purposes of punishment as laid down by the criminal law in India attempts to effectively prevent future crimes: Deterrence, Rehabilitation, Retribution, Restitution and Incapacitation. INCAPACITATION Imprisoning to resist future crimes by containing criminals. House arrest, incarceration fall under this category. RESTITUTION Punishing the defendant financially by making them pay the victims for the losses inflicted. REHABILITATION It is reformational. Restricting future crimes by altering the attitude of defendant. Vocational & educational programs, counseling provided. RETRIBUTION Imposition of punishment of repayment or revenge, that is equal in severity, for the wrong doing of the defendants. DETERRENCE Punishing the defendants with an impression to create fear of the law and discourage the probability of crimes in the future. Titled as Execution in Iran, this cartoon ironically portrays the "brutal legality of execution by hanging". cartoonstock.com The government statistics reflect how the purpose of death penalty, as a measure to curb sexual violence, has proved to be an absolute failure to arouse fear among future perpetrators and eradicate sexual assaults against women in India. Rate of female sexual assaults befall the same fate globally too.

22 EDGE Broader contentions and judicial mechanism The general idea for awarding death penalties for severe sexual offences is to create deterrence by defeating retribution. But according to the statistics put earlier, deterrence has failed miserably in constraining its rate. Therefore, the efficiency of deterrence over retribution cannot be affirmed and its substantiality remains duly unclarified. The bifurcated contentions between the abolitionists and retentionists to drop and hold the idea of ‘execution by hanging’ in India respectively: ‘Rarest of the rare’ is arbitrary DROP: The Supreme Court held “life imprisonment is the rule and death sentence is an exception” in Machhi Singh v. State of Punjab case and pronounced “rarest of the rare” case as a doctrine to play a significant role to impose an exception punishment for an exceptional case, based on facts and evidences produced. “Jurisprudence is far from consistency,” says Shashi Tharoor pointing to the ambiguity of the term “rarest of the rare” as its interpretation is entirely left to the discretion of the courts – making it a by-product of emotional influence of the judges. Hence, the abolitionists denote death sentence to be “arbitrary” in nature. HOLD: Simplified by Cambridge as something ‘very unusual’, “the rarest of the rare” cases direct to all those crimes that are unprecedented, diabolical and grave. Various official data claim that, on an average, a woman is raped every 20 minutes in India. Most of them either raped and threatened or raped and strangled to death. It might seem gruesome but digging deep into Nirbhaya’s case validates its rarity. The then 23-year-old female was gang-raped by 6 people (including 1 minor, Ram Singh who committed suicide in Tihar jail and 4 other alive who face death trials – Pawan Kumar, Vinay Gupta, Mukesh Kumar, Akshay Thakur) in an off-duty bus. A rusty wheel-jack rod was inserted into her private parts in such a way that her intestines ripped apart. She was thrown off from the bus on the road-side half-naked and bloodied. An attempt to crush her under the bus was also made. Her badly-hit male friend pulled her to the pavement to prevent her death. Well! Isn’t this savagery barbaric enough to be declared “exceptional”? 1 2 Irreversible and prone to faltered judgement DROP: The basis of every court proceeding is evidence and witness. Sometimes, the unavailability of the two can lead to taking undeliberate unfair decisions. The irreversibility of a death sentence, due to likelihood of an error, might lead to executing an innocent person. It is not only unethical but a sheer “miscarriage of judgement” and the inability of the law to rectify its faltered decision and grant pardon to a posthumous (hanged) criminal. Death penalty is regressive for the convicts and their families and has shown no fruitful signs hope so far, since 1947, for thwarting the vicious deeds of future perpetrators. HOLD: In situations where the court discourses occur on the footnote of evidences and witnesses, the probability of errors are likely – the dispute of surfacing of evidences in favour of Yakub Memon post his execution. But in scenarios of open public proclamations – as in Nirbhaya’s case where the victim (Jyoti Singh) made 3 dying declarations before her death and the 6 convicts acknowledged their crime – the incidence becomes crystal-clear and the court decision justifiable. Hence, the irreversibility and error-making contentions are challengeable in the court of law. Jurisprudence is far from consistency Shashi Tharoor questioning "rarest of the rare" " "

EDGE 23 3 Victim vulnerability and increased crime possibility DROP: The official data suggest (refer the fig. above) that every time an amendment was introduced in the criminal law act or a death warrant issued against the rapists, the proportionality of sexual offences (with or without an attempt to murder) moved a notch higher. It happened after Nirbhaya’s convicts were sentenced to death by Delhi High Court in 2013 and the POCSO Act amendment in 2018. The Death Penalty report states that 39.21% of death penalties in 2019 were cases of rape with a minor. Moreover, in 93.8% of rape with a minor cases, the offender is an acquaintance – a relative, family member, friend, NCRB data reported. Issuing a death penalty might result in an inhibition in filing a rape case. Moreover, fearing that death sentence is the biggest incentive to murder, the offenders with an attempt to clear the evidence of crime after rape, try to kill the victims – exposing the minor victim vulnerable to murder. HOLD: Not all sexual offences against women and minor are confirmed death sentence by the Supreme Court. Only the most “aggravated” (in the rape of minor) and “rarest of the rare” (rape of women) cases are screened through the glasses of death penalty and only the most heinous criminals face a death warrant. Moreover, tolerance of crime in the face of possibility of more crimes is not only ‘justice-denying’ to the victim but also ‘justice-shaming’ in the eyes of the public that conform to ‘coexist in a civilised way’ under the scanner of the law. 4 Judgement to be reformatory DROP: “Execution kills the criminals and not the crime… How can judiciary decide as to who should live and who should die,” said AP Singh, the lawyer of Nirbhaya’s two convicts. Every human being deserves a second chance – inclusive of criminals of the society. Therefore, everyone deserves a reformational opportunity. Execution is merely a method to channelize public anger. HOLD: The juvenile (one of the convicts) was sent for rehabilitation for 3 years under the juvenile justice court in 2013. He now, with his identity withheld, works in a restaurant in southern part of India. The rest 4 convicts face death trials in the Supreme Court. Reformation works where there is a speck of hope to alter the attitude and behaviour of the offenders. But the criminals who justify the impunity of their sexual offence with begotic rhetoric represent a sickened mentality and cannot be corrected. “If I am executed, this will endanger lives of future rape victims,” threatened Mukesh Kumar (Nirbhaya’s convict, 26 years old during the attack). For criminals with such minds, today and tomorrow, custodial closure is inadequate. Also, the prisoner rehabilitation centres in India aren’t integrated enough, in terms of quantity and quality, to cater to the severe offenders. 5 Death penalty not a deterrent over life imprisonment DROP: Well! Abolitionists claim that no research has ever validated the reduction in rate of sexual crimes due to deterrence. Hence, the idea of death penalty for deterring rapes and murder in India is not only a hollow claim but also fruitless. HOLD: But neither has any multi-disciplinary research denied its significance in lowering the same. Despite committing a dehumanising offence, Nirbhaya’s offenders have displayed a detrimental mindset with no remorse and guilt at all. Definitely,

24 EDGE it wasn’t a pre-meditative action but wasn’t just an irrational and unconsciously committed aggression either. If convicts find lame reasons like “Delhi air pollution killing us anyway, why give death penalty” or “Kalyug” to seek apex clemency, as Nirbhaya’s convicts are doing, it displays how bother-less and unafraid they are of the law, after committing a harrowing crime. Deterrence is not quantifiable. Agreed. But it qualitatively serves the purpose of preservation of law and order in any nation – may it be as simple as imposition of heavy fines for maintaining clean streets or as complex as imposition of death penalty to prevent the indignation of a country by devaluing a women’s modesty in unprecedented diabolical crimes. 6 Miserable criminal life with extra-judicial sufferings Till date 16 convicts have been hanged since 1991 and 4 executions since the 21st century. There are about 378 death rows in India in 2019 and 426 death rows as on 31st December 2018 – some of them pending from 1991. Statistics reflect that increase in the rate of death penalty ruled to sexual offenders, over the past few years, result in long pending cases. Once a death sentence is passed by the sessions court, the convict is prisoned till the trials reach the High Court for death confirmation under prescribed procedures. A district court (session judge) can only pass the sentence of death. No death sentence is considered “authorised” until a division bench of High Court confirms the same. However, the death row convicts get stuck in these trials and face a violent police investigation for an indefinite period of time. While an average time for trial of offenders in sexual crimes and murder cases is five years, the longest time spent by a prisoner was 25 years. A study conducted on 373 prisoners by Death Penalty Research project claims that the inmates suffer mental illness due to sleep deprivation, solitary confinement, looming execution thoughts and horrific routine tortures. “Inmates spoke about being hung by wires, forced to drink urine, placed on a slab of ice… stripped naked… wounds rubbed with lemon juice and chilli,” the report said. Despite the Supreme Court’s ruling of “rarest of the rare” doctrine as a capital punishment parameter, the sessions court is handing out over 300 death sentences to the sexual offenders every year. This is not only engaging the higher courts (the High Court and the Supreme Court) in cumulatively pending cases of sexual offence, which could be easily handled by the district court, but is also elongating the pending trial periods of the death row offenders – making their lives in jail retrogressive with each passing time in the jail. “No person shall be prosecuted and punished for the same offence twice”, Article 20 (2) of the Indian Constitution states. The law protects every individual against “double jeopardy”, inclusive of sexual offenders. Why is then a perpetrator – after partly receiving reprimand for his sexual offence by suffering inhuman living conditions in the jail for an average of five years – handed out a death sentence? Does it not account for a second punishment for the same crime? Courtesy: Project 39A Death penalty awarded in all three judiciary houses

EDGE 25 WAY FORWARD Capital punishment is seen to be a conflicting between legal justice and moral capabilities. The critics of death sentence call for a long-term appropriate break-through for neutralising sexual offences against women and children in India instead of devising short-term knee jerks that have a potential to stir the life of a few individuals only and not bring a mass awareness movement. No researches have authenticated the abdication of sexual assaults after an absolute abolition of death penalty and nor has any nation been able to eliminate sexual offences against women despite dramatic death sentences. But one stick cannot be used to stray everyone. Every crime needs a befitting reply with the imposition of punishments to prevent an offender to either commit or contemplate an offence. Strict amendments in the existing laws to make it adequate enough to subside the growing sexual assaults is necessary. Mukesh Kumar told BBC, “She should have silently allowed rape, then she wouldn’t be dead. A girl is far more responsible for a rape than a boy”. He emphasised that this rape was to teach Nirbhaya and her male friend a lesson to have not stayed out late at night. Criminals who create “cognitive distortion” to justify their reasons for committing a rape cannot be mentally unturned and the judiciary is bound by a legal proposition to take not a ‘stringent’ but an ‘absolute action’ so that the future perpetrators remember it as a binding rhetoric before committing a crime. Keeping other reasons for death sentence in India and speaking of rape cases alone, like Nirbhaya’s, where the deceased victim as well as the convicts have openly acknowledged the brutal occurrence of December 16, 2012 night, there remains no scope of likelihood of error in the judgement. Moreover, the Apex Court with its judicial power of “precedent rule”, which is binding for all Indian courts, declared that Nirbhaya’s case was “rarest of the rare” India has witnessed so far. Moreover, the sessions court should be exceptionally selective in handing out death sentences to the sexual offenders. Stringent actions to a large set of offenders make people law-tolerance and the significance of “rarest of the rare” doctrine to create deterrence is lost. 1 2 Selective death sentences Adequate fast-tract courts and speedy trials India has 581 fast-track courts with over 59,000 pending cases, as of March, 2019. The dearth of fasttrack courts to swiftly deliver justice is one of the major causes for the pending and delayed judgements. The factor of intractability of all the sexual abuse crimes in India, including Nirbhaya’s case, are: severity and surety of punishment. The correct twining of these factors, in terms of laws and judgements by the legislative and judiciary system respectively, would determine the quotient of deterrence to intimidate and contain the future sexual crimes. Depending on how “severe” the sexual offence is, a quick but fair judgement by the fast-track court should be followed with “certainty”. In India, where rapes and sexual abuse increase dramatically, deterrence can act as an effective technique if the conviction and punishment is determined by the courts with “speed and accuracy” – within 90-100 days – after the crime and not letting the criminals astray the judiciary. Nirbhaya’s convicts are cunningly exploiting the similar loopholes in the judicial Death sentences cannot be executed without the nod of High Court in India. Yet, sessions courts take the leverage to "hastily" pronounce black warrants to sexual convicts; engaging and exhausting the time of HC.

26 EDGE procedures and tactically pressing away the final verdict. Moreover, the prolonged trials of the sexual convicts since 1991, is doubtlessly, immunising the future perpetrators to outlaw the judicial procedures, take it for granted and anticipate a close escape from the wrath of the penalties.Though judgement and justice coexist, there is a very thin difference between them. Judgement passed by the courts, in criminal and PIL cases, especially by the Supreme Court of India, acts precedent for the delivery and penetration of justice and trust-building among the public. Furthermore, the fast track hanging will prevent mental agony and torture to the convicts facing death row and their families. The contention tabled by the lawyer of Nirbhaya’s convicts, AP Singh was “They have already been killed 4 times with 4 death warrants”, challenging the judicial killings after immense mental agony on the convicts. 3 Strong law enforcement Government makes laws but its worthiness is not quantified. Otherwise, brutality with Nirbhaya and other females wouldn’t have exponentially increased. Better structured educational pattern to create gender sensitivity among the young minds in schools and colleges is a pre-requisite for a mentally sound and socially equal society in the future. In fact, all professional organisations should also ensure to conduct gender-inclusive and grievance addressal workshops to eradicate sexual assault at workspaces. Police training sessions to increase sensitivity towards the victims and employing techniques to smartly investigate and identify the legitimacy of the rape case registered. There is an utter need of adequate and efficient mindset rectification rehabilitation centres that would, under the exceptional professional guidance of medical practitioners and counsellors, ensure to contructivise the thought process of the rapists. No retribution, however stringent, can ever repay what every sexual assault victim and their family had suffered and lost so far. But promoting ‘healthy fear’ with ‘quick and severe justice’ in ‘rare’ heinous cases can definitely muzzle and contain the misdemeanant behaviour of one gender towards the other. It can create a ‘dikephobic respect’ until the Indian legislature and judiciary, together, amend criminal justice system to be able to reform a ‘chauvinist mindset’ to comprehend an egalitarian ‘gender respect’. E ...Last Yet Least Courtesy: shutterstock.com Courtesy: Project 39A

EDGE 27

28 EDGE DIG THE DEAD Neo-expressionism: Revisiting the F***ery of the F-word F*** the most mind-f***ed f***tard who is f***ing my already f***ed-up time to f***ing fit into my f***ing pyjamas of life and compelling me to f***ing read this f***nut article! Did the swearing feel excruciating? Well! Many youngsters will quite congruently relate to the pouring usage of an array of A-word, B-word and C-word till Z that steals most verbal discourses. And then comes the most exploited word – F***. This F-word has lodged for itself, an irreplaceable place in the lexicon of students, especially in the eminent one-tier cities. No, not once. They use it countless times, consciously or unconsciously interchanging it with noun, verb, adverb and adjective. Gone are the days when we had to express emotions with the conventions of grammar and laurels of language. Today, you just have to ‘prudently’ wrap your sentence with a swear word and ta-da!! Score one for successfully conveying your fragile feelings to the addressee. The F-word, the etymology of which is vaguely known, is claimed to have its origin in the portrayal of the word ‘Fornicate Under Command of the King’; in simpler terms, copulate. Some researchers say that it represents ‘male sexual aggression’ while the others say it was named after a man ‘Roger Fukebythenavele’. Something that was classified as obscene, has been ‘decently’ normalised around early 21st century. It is an essential verbal or gestural component today, if you intend to get yourself identified as cool and sassy. We f***erify everything that rolls our way. I loved your f***ing coffee. It is f***ing hot – in exaggeration. F***! – if it accidently spills. F*** you! – if it gets spilled by someone. Linguistic monopoly, I would call it. You, probably, are beginning to doubt the contention I made here. Let’s exemplify this then. Circulation of the breaking news in the face of demise of one of the most influential politicians, Sushma Swaraj, in the WhatsApp group of a media communication college aroused a peculiar consternation wave. After learning about the shocking news, everyone seemed to have banked their emotions of ‘surprise’, disappointment’ and ‘dismay’ by throwing F-bombs all over the virtual space.

EDGE 29 Now, this linguistic hypoxia demanded a surgical peep into their perception. Hence, a survey conducted among the strength of 50 youngsters, within the age group of 15 to 30, made psychological revelations about the inception and indiscriminant downpours of The average age at which majority of them started swearing was 13-14, precisely standard VII or VIII – the commonest amongst all being Fuck (49%), Bitch (23%), Shit (17%) and Saala (11%). About 99% respondents do swear whenever convenient as opposed to 1 who finds swearing ‘dehumanising’. However, it is astonishing to know that among the former, 60.06% believe swearing is absolutely normal, 9.1% disagree and 30.3% remain diplomatically neutral over the usage of slangs. Majority of the respondents were found to have been swearing for catharsis – which researchers link with the explanation as to why women face cardiac ailments less than males. Shouting out F-word and others liberates the lessexpressed or suppressed emotions and frustrations. About 16% respondents attribute swearing as a sheer influence of close associates and friend circles; 12% do not even realise how effortlessly, rather unconsciously, they swear. At another instance, when deliberately questioned about the threshold age of kids, majority agreed that children below 14-16 years of age should not swear - until they know the eaning of it. However, the responses of some seemed hypocritical. Despite tossing slangs themselves, they feel children should ‘not’ swear and “I will scold my child, if I hear her swear”. Did they forget that owing to social learning and exposure to mass media, children pick things multiple-folds faster – including slangs? I would say respondents have clearly shown selectively aware in understanding the importance of safeguarding their children from swearing whilst ignoring their own. Now we come to the last, yet the most critical question that I spoke about earlier – whether or not ‘will it be easy for the respondents to replace normalised slangs like Fuck and Shit with usual semantic during regular conversations?’ With an alibi to vent out emotional hues, people are heavily externalising their emotional punch by saying things like,”What the real Fuck!” Fuck is no more a veil of indecency among youngsters. Hence, stands no chance to get the recipients irked or offended, I understood. It is merely a student dialect not an abusive jargon. I collectively call it the neo-expressionism – occasionally abusive but mostly casual for socialisation, catharsis and interjection. However, how did the use of slangs explosively create a hall for itself in the brain’s speech hemisphere? Did not the social constructs of the so-called modernising society unfurl the linguistic-misnomers to an extent that people, especially youngsters and now a days children too, find using basic English harder over tossing slangs to comprehend their feelings to others? In fact, sometimes I feel generalised slangs like Fuck and Shit would make people wise as they have to comprehensively join the dots and fill in the voids to figure out the swearer’s ‘vividly unexpressed’ emotions. I agree that Fuck has a denotative meaning in this clamorous modern era; I know that slangs are known to boost emotions and tolerance and I am also aware of the fact that there are, indeed, millions of ways to throw F*** at someone’s face – f*** you, f*** all, f*** up, m*****fucker; not forgetting the neologisms like f***tard and f***wit at the least. Nonetheless, lose not your grip over the artistic command of your language. It is your internal F-words in their lives. canvas. Disclaimer: F-word and other slangs have been profusely used here onwards to allow uninterrupted discussion about the survey findings

30 EDGE People might argue what’s wrong in the use? I say, there is nothing wrong; nothing at all, as long as you know how to appropriately articulate the intricate fabrics of your precious emotions with the right choice of relevant words. It is appreciable how your friends are able to easily decode your implied expressions and emotions without an explicit detailing. Indeed, it is alone your duty to not let your feelings be taken for granted. Language is the pioneer of a civilisation and a forerunner of an ongoing evolution. Do enjoy the social and linguistic liberty available to you but not at the cost of self-expressionism. One can outstand the time with modernity and verbal-liberalisation but all individual sentiments remain intrinsic and non-perishable. Try not to dilute or trade its beauty and significance with ‘one-pricefor-all’ - precisely ‘one-slang-forall’ policy. E The recipient of 2018 Windham-Campbell Prize, Olivia Laing elucidates the shape that art carves in the mindset of a society in her new novel Funny Weather: Art in an Emergency. It is a sarcasmic commentary which equates art with a ‘magic bullet’ that fails never to act as an antidote to humanise our ethical landscapes in any bleaky crises. Sharing the wisdom, Laing, celebrates art as the silver lining on dark clouds of the twenty-first century crises. The sassy title Funny Weather funnels the context of this tumultuous modern era where political, emotional and social weather is deafening, turning ‘weirder’ and paranoiac. Art, like a breakthrough, inspires a ‘force of resistance and repair’ for an individual awakening. Laing, a cultural critic has authored notable non-fiction novels like The Lonely City and The Trip to the Echo Spring among others. Her books help unfurl the eternal beauty of life by inspiring new still easy ways of empathetic living. Funny Weather is an absolute delight and a souldrive to sheer escapism. Wit intersecting wisdom. It is a must-read for all who want to aesthetically liberate themselves from dystopian times to get uplifted into utopian humanism, unfurling the serenity of art. LEISURE Deep Down in Troubled Time, Art Saves your Spine “ One of the finest writers of the new non-fiction ” Harper’s Bazaar BOOK REVIEW Closing each day with a novel

EDGE 31 Planting saplings over 1,300 times her age, a barefoot environmentalist Tulasi Gowda, has validated that determination is ageless and humility is selfless. Owing to her extraordinary knowledge of herbs and plants, the 72-year-old is popularly known as the ‘Encyclopaedia of the forest’. Tulasi amma belongs to the Halakki tribe and was conferred with the 2020 Padma Shri award for her life-long contribution for single-handedly planting over 1 lakh saplings. This ‘unsung hero’ (addressed by Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of India) hails from the Honnalli village in Angola taluk of Uttar Kannada district in Karnataka. Describing Tulasi amma’s ecological agility, Indian Forest Service Officer AN Yellappa Reddy said, “90 percent trees had regenerational problems but she recovered all. She knows seed biology, nursing techniques, philology and a lot more but she doesn’t know the science behind it”. Her indigenous action-borne knowledge about forest preservation parallels botanists and environment intellectuals too. INTERVIEW Meet TULASI GOWDA 2020 Padmashri awardee, Tulasi amma bags over fifty awards. The most prestigious ones are: Rajotsava Award, Indira Priyadarshini Vruksha Mitra Award, Mandya Award, Kavitha Memorial Award to name a few. Rising above her poverty, she has unconsciously begun an environmental movement that is leadering not only planting of the sapling but also nurturing and maintaining them.

32 EDGE I Felt As If The Tree-fellers Approached to Chop ‘Me’ Off A sheer passion for forestry ends into an unexpected glory. An hour-long interview with Tulasi amma unveils the pearl of uttermost simplicity within the sturdy shell of eco-friendly conscience - a rich ethnic heritage. A long journey that keystones the frames of her poverty and popularity, both. Q. Starting with an elementary question, how does it feel to become Padma Shri recipient, the fourth-most prestigious civilian award of India? A. Everyone congratulates me and the newspapers interview me too. I have heard that the award is prestigious. Intellectuals achieve it. However, I haven’t officially received the award yet. I am still overwhelmed that the nation has acknowledged my efforts. It has also filled my family and my community with pride. Q. Did the award pronouncement bag any noticeable change in your personal life? A. It did, ma. It felicitated me, nationally. I have been conferred to several state-level awards over time. However, life before and after the pronouncement of Padma Shri has changed multi-folds. It is not that my community and my local administration ever failed me, but the aura of my recognition and reach has expanded and strengthened. And I think that is important because credible individuals are mostly heard and followed by people. And being illiterate if I can stir some discussions to establish the significance of greenery around us, I will consider it to be my greatest reward. Q. Could you take us down the memory lane of your ‘Encyclopaedia of the forest’ voyage? A. I was 2-year-old when my father died. Poverty-hit, I had to load the livelihood concerns of my family on my shoulders. People of my age went to school but I joined the Honnalli nursery in Agasur when I was 20. I was paid a daily wage of 1.25 rupees – it seemed too little for our survival – but I was happy to at least have earned something. I persisted working there for next 10-15 years in the lack of a better alternative. I got married when I was 12-13 years old but it did not last long. My husband died and I had my children to look after. But I never lost hope. I kept doing what made me happy. Later, identifying my experience about plant upkeep, Reddy sir regularised me into the forest department. It almost has been 50 years now and I retired recently. Government pension remains as the only source of living for me. But I keep visiting the nursery seldom. The national ‘gaurava’ that I have received validates my consistent hard work. Q. It is said that tough times make a person great. Especially rising above all odds as a woman holds gravity profoundly in patriarchal as well as a rural society. Your remarkable dedication and life-long contribution in reviving the flora is unmatched. Have you witnessed any challenges while walking alone on this unconditional path? A. Every step in life is a challenge and I tackled all by following my heart. My dad died. Poverty hit us hard. We had no asset except 2 acres of land. I never went to school but I do not regret that. (She pauses to recall) Later, after becoming a widow, life got a little difficult economically and socially. What I earned could somehow meet my family requirements. I have also worked as a daily wage labourer. Though I was supported and never despised by my community. Single-handed responsibility, in the forest and at home, became a little tough to handle. I remember to have encountered a group of illegal tree-fellers. We mimicked the Chipkoo movement Sukri Bommagowda (extreme left) and Tulasi amma (left of Sukri amma) and their aides Interviewing Tulasi amma was equivalent to a pinnacle that busted the hypothesis of helplessness of a single-woman.

EDGE 33 I Felt As If The Tree-fellers Approached to Chop ‘Me’ Off A sheer passion for forestry ends into an unexpected glory. An hour-long interview with Tulasi amma unveils the pearl of uttermost simplicity within the sturdy shell of eco-friendly conscience - a rich ethnic heritage. A long journey that keystones the frames of her poverty and popularity, both. Sukri Bommagowda (extreme left) and Tulasi amma (left of Sukri amma) and their aides and hugged the trees to obliterate the act. Though the problem was averted, but I was deeply hurt and cried heavily that day. I felt as if the tree-fellers approached to chop me off. I received the Mitra award (Indira Priyadarshini Vruksha Mitra) and 2 lakhs rupees. But the forest department kept both. The only token of memory, left with me, to have received the award was a photograph. Unfortunately, a TV reporter took it and never returned. I am uneducated. I don’t understand much (and a pristine smile ran on her face). My major breakthrough was Reddy sir and the forest department to have extended their assistance to get me a regularised job under the umbrella of the Karnataka government. I thoroughly enjoyed my forest-keeping duty. After I received so many awards for forest preservation, I witnessed a transition in my life. The people in front of whom my presence hardly mattered, now respect me and listen to me. My words and actions hold weightage now. Q. Planting over 1,00,000 trees and herbs in and around Angola in a span of 60 years is equivalent to planting about 1,600 saplings per year. How did you develop this affinity for forest raising? Also, every plant demands its own set of planting practices and maintenance. From where did you gather this endless knowledge of diverse plant species? A. I have walked a long way with my age so I don’t really remember the reason for my likeness for trees. Planting saplings and seeing them grow and flower always rejoiced and inspired me to remain knotted to this passion. I treated plants as my own children. (Softly smiles) I used to take care of the small plants until they became self-sufficient to anchor themselves. None of my saplings have dried so far. Wherever I found seeds, I used to plant and nurture it under my supervision. Once it grew a little hardy, I took them to the forest for a permanent planting. I have innumerable times gathered the seeds of Methi (Terminalis elliptica) and repeated the process. I have raised plenty of woody and medicinal plants like Honne (Pterocarpus marsupium), Nandi (Lagerstroemia microcarpia) and Hunase (Tamarindus indica) and alike. My efforts at the nursery and towards forest preservation are interlinked with the thread of need for evergreen conservation. Not only humans, but also animals depend on the forests for their survival. Enthusiasm and eventually, constant effort to plant more saplings and watch them grow shaped my understanding about plants. I have never received formal education. Hence, experience is my principle guide. I liken the trees to my own kids (she grins with utter innocence). Q. Do you prepare disease-curing tonics using your invaluable knowledge of medicinal herbs? A. No. I sometimes recommend preparations of Amla, Tulsi and alike but only to my close acquaintances. I do not prepare any potions for commercial purposes. I believe – allopathic, ayurvedic and homeopathic – all have their own importance and benefits. One should take what suits them the most. Q. Unfortunately, you might have to face a temporary suspension of award distribution ceremony to be held by the Rashtrapati Bhawan this year due to the fatal onset of Covid-19...?

34 EDGE A. (Her response came before the completion of the question) I started planting saplings out of passion. I never knew that my interest would seed into a golden memory. I never anticipated a laurel – especially not a rashtriya prasasti. Q. Sukri Amma (belonging to the same community) received a Padma Shree award last year for the propagation of folk songs and tales. And this year, you are awarded with the same prestigious-tag. How does this lineage of nature and culture-inclined affinity percolate in your community? A. We did not receive any organised training for anything. In our village, we stay in close proximity to nature, our culture and tradition – which strings us to acknowledge its significance. I have a joint family. I teach my children and grandchildren to plant trees and try to forward my plant-nurturing knowledge. But they do not show much interest as much as I do. They practice agriculture on a patch of land for self-sustenance. Everyone should plant at least two trees in one’s lifetime. Planting and maintaining the health of the trees is all that matters. The goal is to ensure that the earth remains tree-heavy and pollutionless. Moreover, it will prevent heat waves too. Q. Do you have any environment-centric message to share with the generations now? A. Trees are guardians that unconditionally love us. From holding soil to shaping river streams, curing diseases and maintaining rain and heat, trees protect everything. It is a home to animals. Planting seeds or saplings do not even cost much. If you are young, plant trees. If you have children, make them plant trees. Remaining close to the nature makes people environment-loving and empathetic towards it. Watching the sapling grow healthily arouses heartfelt bliss. Though intangible, but it is the most treasured reward. E SCI-KICK Soon Earth Will Have Her Personal Cleaning Staff Pictoral representation of garbage-collector 'Chaser' I n the world’s first experimental mission, the European Space Agency (ESA) plans to launch a ‘four-armed garbage collecting robot’ named Chaser, which will grasp and collect space debris from earth’s orbit till an altitude of 2,000 kilometres. Likened to a suicide robot, Chaser will drag and burn itself with the collected debris after entering the earth’s atmosphere. Over 3000 defunct satellites and millions of space debris remain clattered in space – floating as ‘space junks’ – after their shelf life is reached. These cosmic junks act as a threat in disrupting the functioning of the active satellites revolving in the earth’s orbit due to potential collisions. These accidental clashes might trigger cascading effect to pose danger to ‘manned space crafts, navigation, communication, weather forecasting etc.’ For time being, the this pilot initiative, developed by Swiss start-up called as the ClearSpace-1, attempts to deploy Chaser to cleanup Vespa – ESA’s Vega launcher deployed 800 kilometres above the earth’s surface in 2013. Ever since 1957 – with the launch of USSR’s Sputnik 1 satellite – all these space dead junks in the earth’s orbit appear like a graveyard and require an extra-terrestrial neatness. The total cost of this onetime mission will come around $133 million and futuristically how cost effective this ‘cosmic tow-truck’ will be, yet remains undetermined. Courtesy: studyiq.com E

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36 EDGE PROBE Animal loving doesn’t necessarily have to be of an altruistic kind. You might as well end up ordering a wildlife platter, big or small, yet again, call yourself an animal lover. Chinese love animals too – pretty much, many a times, to not be able to bear the sight of them getting chopped off. So, they wait no more to fork into a halfalive or half-dead animal, whichever earlier. Their cuisine remains adventurous – from domesticated to wildlife, endangered to poisonous – nothing escapes the oesophageal route. Yes, the infamous ‘wet markets’ – the biological-haulers of an unprecedented 2003 SARS and Covid19 outbreak – has ominously claimed incalculable lives. No, not that this market is an illegal conveynor for smugglers; it is very much regularised, government supervised and aided. Owing to its nerve-chilling wet market menu card, it bags a hefty well-off turnover of 148 billion Yuan in 2018. However, not all species on earth have visited the slaughter houses to satisfy Chinese superfluous taste buds until something catastrophic happened couple of decades ago, sometime between 1959 and 1961. Tired of the ‘robbers of the fruit of labour’ – namely rats, flies, mosquitoes and above all, sparrows – the Chinese government, under the leadership of Mao Zedong, launched a ‘4 Pest Campaign’. However, the campaign boomeranged miserably. Birds were shot dead and locals played drums and pans to fend away branch-perched sparrows. The extermination of birds, that kept a check, led the pests to thrive well in the fields. Locust population not only swarmed and fed off everything that cultivation lands could carry but also crippled the country of ecological disbalance in the face of great famine. Documenting the severity of the most disastrous famine, Dutch historian Frank Dikotter discloses a terrible narration of how the locals of Sichuan province desperately attempted to survive on Why is Chinese Wet Market Explicitly Exotic? Courtesy: nypost.com Inside wildlife market in China

EDGE 37 white porcelain mud called ‘guan yin’ to fill their grain-deprived stomach; and eventually died. A declassified data reports that over 36 million people starved to death. Wrecked by the devastation of communist-controlled food production and the inability to feed about 900 million, almost at the verge of starvation, the Chinese government decided to privatise animal farming in 1978. Large corporates dominated the production and sale of popular food items including poultry and pork; the largely spread small-scale farms focussed on culturing wild animals to sustain their livelihood. “If you can lift yourself out of poverty, no matter what you are doing, that’s ok!” said Peter Li, associate professor at University of Houston-Downtown, reiterating the then government’s policy to legalise wildlife trade. Later in 1988, a provision that problematically spurred and flourished the wildlife raising and trade in China were the Article 3 and Article 7 of the Laws of People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Wildlife. While the former designated the wildlife as the “resources” to be “owned by the state” and armed the people indulged in wildlife “utilisation”, the latter validated the “domestication and breeding of wildlife” – officially authorising the wildlife industry. Something that started with the backyard culture of turtles, bats and snakes for self-sustenance, transformed into a commercial practice to incorporate bears, ostriches, crocodiles and civet cats. The endangered species industry including tigers, pangolins and rhinos remained illegally smuggled into the mainland for meat. But, in 2016, the communist regime sanctioned the trade of endangered species. The wildlife trade, eventually funnelling into the wet market began to bloom – the conveyor of zoonotic diseases like the present day cataclysmic coronavirus. Viral seasons come. Leave behind life-threatening scars on the face of the globe. Go away unbeaten. China’s disease-prone wildlife trade and powerful lobby won, yet again. When there is not enough people starve to death. It is better to let half of the people die so that the other half can eat their full. Mao Zedong, Shanghai in 1959. Wrecked by the devastation of the Chinese great famine, Mao-controlled communist government privatised animal farming, exposing wildlife to the animal farming in 1978. Courtesy: flashbak.com E The great famine of 1959 led millions into the mouth of starvation

38 EDGE POLITICS “Incompetent" Trinity Led a “Wave of Bitter Shame” "The most damaging factor was perpetrated by the Nehru-Menon-Kaul regime where army was reduced to a status of messengers of political orders," Dalvi penned in his book. The Himalayan Blunder is a much unspoken first-person account that describes the debacle and humiliation that India received in the face of “one-sided” 1962 India’s war with China. 7 Infantry Brigade, under the so-called-command of John Parashuram Dalvi, bore the offensive brunt of the Chinese onslaught – a massive failure of internal and foreign policies that ignored our border dispute with China for over 8 years, from 1954 to 1962. Dalvi, Chinese prisoner of war for about 7 months, accused the “inapt leaders” (talking about the trinity of Jawaharlal Nehru- VK Krishna Menon-Brij Mohan Kaul) to have “set 7 Brigade into an unescapable trap”. At 5am on 20th October 1962, the Chinese launched a lightning-speed pre-emptive strike with blatant infantry assaults, in Namka Chu of Kameng Frontier in NEFA (North-East Frontier Agency, now Arunachal Pradesh) and Ladakh against the unprepared Indian army. Within a matter of just 3 hours, the Chinese army advanced 160 miles down the southern slopes of the Himalayas reaching the Brahmaputra River in Assam by 20th November 1962. They swept away Sela Pass and Bomdi La Pass. The monastery town of Towang was also reduced to rubbles. Dalvi points out "seven" blunders that left India with a life-long scar of crushing defeat and losing 20,000 square miles of Indian territory in Aksai Chin. He blames the political and military leadership of Nehru-Menon-Kaul for their "incompetence yet stubborn" wishful thinking, strategic failure of the Forward Policy, poor communication with the army, misconceived financial stringency, reliance on foreign assurances like the US and ignorance towards war-requisites of frontline soldiers. BLUNDER India-China border dispute since 1962 www.economist.com BLUNDER Around 1940s, the Indian army was one of the finest fighting forces in the world. But poor national and foreign policy reduced defence with dying attention. During war with China, only "50 rounds of small arms ammunition per man" was available, stated Dalvi. " "

EDGE 39 BLUNDER 2 China’s Dispute Over McMohan Line (agreed boundary between Tibet and India) Zhou EnLai, the Premier of People’s Republic of China, hinted India at various discourses to have “not yet fixed our border line with some countries” and with skirmishes along Bara-Hoti in Uttar Pradesh and Tibet border in 1954 itself. In 1959 too, the Chinese hit again with a tirade of three assaults that claimed nine of our soldiers. Their interpretation of the McMohan line fell in the Thagla Ridge-Khenzemane region, extended till Drokung Samba Bridge, some 2 miles inside the Indian territory. Yet again, we took no cognizance and lauded the "Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai" slogan; initiated no border reconnaissance. “The Chinese were unlikely to wage war against India" and if at all they do, the incursions were unlikely during the winter, the Defence Minister of India, VK Krishna Menon had publicly declared. Conversely, the Chinese had long prepared for the war by constructing heavy-load roads and helipads for land and air strikes respectively, POW camps with the capacity of 3,000 men, recruited Tibetan spies to vigil Indian activities along the border; opened 30 posts and occupied 14,000 sq. miles of Ladakh region by 1962 August. BLUNDER “Limited” Defence Measures 3 In his book, Dalvi painfully narrates about “hard scales and pouched ammunition” often. Barely good roads, bridges and no petrol dumps; "ill-equipped, ill warfare-trained and unacclimatised" man-power had to face the well-equipped Chinese army. There were acute shortage of regimental necessities of nutrition and ration, clothing and medical facilities at freezing temperatures hitting -25 degree Celsius; second world war-based obsolete weapons and no modern rifles and machine guns; no border surveillance mechanisms and hence, no intelligence inputs. All linearly ignored by the top brass in New Delhi. The battalions, with limited defences, were hurriedly scrambled at NEFA and Ladakh borders in 1959. The act was mere precautionary. Nehru and Menon didn't anticipate war "despite recurring warnings". The Indian army were heavily out-numbered and out-weaponed. Instead of focussing on war tactics, the task of the troops was reduced to make bricks, fetch logs, construct helipads, collect air-drops and also to do labour work in the irky dearth of animal transporters and porter companies. “Survival became more important than readiness for war", Dalvi reiterated a Lt. Colonel's statement. Lieutenant Colonel said, “Atta is the only commodity I have for fighting, feeding, and for futile correspondence”. BLUNDER Contentitious “Forward Policy” 4 Despite terrain and tactical difficulties, Kaul confirmed to have architected the most controversial “Forward Policy”, also called as the “positional warfare” to contain the Chinese aggression. However, flawed his policies were, anyone who disagreed was threatened to be “severely dealt with disciplinary actions”. A new 4 Corps was created to appoint him as the Commander for administering the "majestic task to evict the Chinese from Dhola-Thagla area". BLUNDER 1 India’s Foreign Policy Towards China Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel warned Nehru to not just focus on Kashmir issues with Pakistan; instea, to prepare for "hostility" at two fronts. He likely ex-pected “military confrontation of India with China”. But his prophesy was ignored. Nehru focussed on "China-appeasing policy", Dalvi stated. The Chinese eagerness to plunge into the war had become itself evident on 8th September 1962 when they incursed into the Thagla Ridge area. It simultaneously assembled an army of 30,000 to 50,000 opposite to NEFA. On the contrary, the Indian Government, till 19th October 1962 (a day before the Chinese attacked India), anticipated "Chinese are our friends". "There was only one infantry brigade facing the Chinese in NEFA, which everyone was commanding verbally," wrote Dalvi. The task of guarding all the crossings of Namka Chu was impossible. 7 Brigade was spread over 12 miles at Namka Chu but artillery for defensive fire was "pouched". Dalvi accused the trinity to have neglected regimental requirements to scrape public applause instead. The Himalayan Blunder was, hence, banned and the publication reached bookshelves not before 1968.

40 EDGE BLUNDER Dalvi calls it a political gimmick that took control of the actions of 5 and 7 Brigades, facing Chinese in the forefront. “Kaul was attempting to take down world’s largest land army with a bayonet strength of 2 understrength battalions, moving on hard scales”, wrote Dalvi. However, Kaul suffered a serious lung ailment on 17th October, 1962 (3 days before the Chinese led a full-fledged war) and was evacuated from Tezpur (Division headquarter) to Delhi – leaving the 7 Brigade without a leadership and providing Dalvi "no operational freedom and authority, even in the absence of Kaul" despite being the Brigadier of 7 Infantry Battalion. Kaul returned to the command on 29th October, 1962 - after the battle of Namka Chu was over. By that time, Towang was already invaded by Chinese and left abandoned. Dalvi claimed that the McMohan line couldn’t be defended just by sitting on it and uselessly sacrificing forces at NEFA. The decision to fall back, shorten the ground line and gain fighting position for the battle at Bomdi La, where their supplies were sufficient, for better killing when the Chinese army was fully stretched - would have forced the enemy out. Instead, we "adamantly followed a Forward Policy” provoking the already aggressive rival. However, only Kaul's advice mattered in 1962. Army Commander General Sen had unofficially lost authority, to take operational decisions, in the hands of Kaul. In the absence of porters, Indian troops forming a man-tow over rough terrain during Indo-Sino War Courtesy: indiandefencereview.com The Prime Minister, Defence Minister and Army Chief had shared party to make the decision for appointing Kaul. "Menon was a wishful Defence Minister and Kaul his compliant Chief of Army Staff ", Dalvi rued in his book. Air force wasn’t adequately utilised Air-Force, that plays a crucial role in wars for its extraordinary capability of mass destruction, was not utilised during Indo-China war. In fact, helipad construction was undertaken by the ‘Indian army’, and not as well before 1962. Our wretched foreign policy allowed air strikes only within the territorial boundaries of India - solely for defence. Air power was disadvantageously used for resource-dropping purposes. BLUNDER 5 Barely good roads, bridges and no petrol dump. Short supplies that hardly lasted 4 days. At 15,000 height, soldiers spent nights in summer uniforms and with 1 blanket. - Dalvi's account

EDGE 41 BLUNDER 6 Nehru’s priority shifts and Ill-choice of Words During 1960s, Jawaharlal Nehru was busy consolidating his reputation as an elder statesman to lead Afro-Asian region against colonisation, namely Indonesia and African countries. Moreover, the External Affairs Ministry remained preoccupied with Kashmir issue in the United Nations. Despite Indo-China skirmish, starting 20th September onwards, Nehru returned from Nigeria on October 2 and Menon from New York New York on September 30, 1962. Why were the Prime Minister and the Defence Minister away during the most divisive times? Why did Kaul fail to convey the seriousness of the Thagla Ridge ssituation, to return to India at the earlier and address the situation? Even if he did, it wouldn’t make much difference as “short-sighted and negligent Nehru,” Dalvi accused, decided to “retaliate”. Nehru’s imprudent choice of words worked well against a belligerent nation, waiting for a trigger, to seek reasons for initiating “pre-emptive attacks”. Nehru said, “Throw Chinese aggressors out of NEFA”. A Chinese official retaliated by saying, “The Americans cannot throw us out, what can you miserable Indians do to us”. Since 8th September to 20th October 1962, the mistakes were solely due to faulty Higher Direction of War. • Allegations of “Menon’s interference in the senior Army promotions,” and other “military procedural matters”. Major-General BM Kaul was promoted as Lt. General and brought to Delhi in 1959, on the advice of Menon. • Kaul is attributed to have led the Division to a “series of reverses”. Owing to his “lack of experience, planning, administration, frayed tempers and miscommunication,” and the infamously the Forward Policy, led to the tragic turn of events that provoked Chinese to term its aggression precautionary. BLUNDER Contentitious “Forward Policy” 7 BLUNDER Kaul found “no alternative but to evict China.” Under the Forward Policy, he instructed the already outnumbered garrison to move forward towards the Chinese territory and establish posts in dispute-sensitive Dhola of Tri-junction (India-China-Bhutan), defend Towang, prevent any infiltration across McMohan Line and establish new posts in the Ladakh region. The top orders demanded to hold out Dhola “at all costs”, irrespective of its strategic and geographic difficulties. Dhola is a narrow valley, and the most vulnerable and contentious area after Chinese skirmish and attempted incursion in August, 1959. Kaul selected Dhola area for operational purposes despite contrary advises. Poor communication facilities and unfavourable terrain for the vigilance of enemy troops makes it indefensible. Dhola was a post only 40 men. “Following Kaul’s commands,” the Gorkha regiment and Assam Rifles got “wasted at Dhola”. “The Chinese used it as a bait to lure us to Namka Chu, denude our defences at Towang and open the route to the plains of Assam. We were taken down by China's death-trap tactics,” Dalvi narrated. • Nehru asserted Kaul’s decision with the statement, “Whoever succeeded in establishing a post would claim the territory.” “Each border incident was an incompetent manifestation of a political intervention”, Dalvi said. They (Chinese) attacked us in unexpectedly undisputed areas – Khenzemane, Longju in 1959 and Galwan (Ladakh) in 1962. China deceived us with its pattern of border mobility. Zhou Enlai said, “If India sets posts in Galwan Valley, China will cross McMohan line”. -Dalvi's account.

42 EDGE Jawaharlal Nehru with Defence Minister Yashwantrao Chavan after Menon resigned on November 7, 1962 Courtesy: thewire.com While other accounts are almost similar, Neville Maxwell’s account about Indo-China war poses some differences with Dalvi in the context of justifiability of McMohan line (agreed during 1913 Tripartite Conference of Tibet, China and British India in Shimla). While India claims all the land south to McMohan line as hers and denies China’s right over Tibet (according to the Shimla agreement charted by British), Maxwell sympathises with China’s claim of Tibet. Instead of resolving border-related acute issues, Nehru was more concerned with politics, shaping public opinion, finance and administration with dying attention to defence. He excused himself of being “the first PM of a newly independent nation”. "Sacrificing Kaul and Menon by drawing premature retirement to them, he quelled the outraged citizen and to restore his political cult," Dalvi penned. Later, the Enquiry Board commissioned to anlyse the causes of NEFA and Ladakh Reverses, indirectly stressed on the blunders laid down by Dalvi in his book, The Himalayan Blunder. The independent investigation cited "blind appeasement and ignorance of the higher authority in understanding China and its aspirations and intentions" and the zero point of contact between Congress and the Armed forces. it emphasised on the lack of practise sessions of "specialised warfare training" and non-reconnaissance of the enemy in the wake of frequent warnings, as causatives for the shameful defeat of 1962. E Skewed Priorities, Defeat and Aftermath The United States and United Kingdom were hesitant to supply arms, without strings, to India as they had created Pakistan and they were committed to maintain military relations with their protégé - Pakistan. Moreover, India was grappled in increasing clashes with the West due to Hungarian revolution of 1956 and the Suez Canal crisis. In 1956, our economy wasn’t sufficient enough to fulfil our requirements from France and Sweden. Above that, Russia couldn’t supply arms to India for ideological reasons of communist alliance. Russia helped China in building its military and industrial sectors. India’s approach of advocating for peaceful settlements of disputes and disarmament, and non-alliance brought home some heavy penalties too.

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