Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Another Train Journey

It was another one of those long train journeys taking me home after a conference. I did the usual things to while away the morning- reading, dreaming and scheming. North bound trains, I am convinced, have the worst food. Fortunately, choosing a meal was easy. I had the simple choice between vegetable biriyani and egg biriyani. I favoured the vegetable biriyani , simply because I believed it was less toxic. I don’t particularly like the terrible experience of salmonella poisoning (with rotten eggs). Certainly not in our railway toilets. I tucked reluctantly into the half cooked, suspiciously coloured rice with a fragile plastic fork which distinctly looked used. There was only a faint suggestion of vegetables in the meal-a sliver of carrot and a slice of green chilli. The only hope of anything palatable lay inside a plastic pickle packet that was clearly not meant to be opened without a dental struggle. I tried vainly to open it with my teeth and tasted success when it spilt unceremoniously on my moustache and lips. The IRCTC sure does make you work for a meal.
I then settled in for a planned afternoon nap. Over the years I learnt the hard way that it was not easy to take a siesta in a train. There would be the loud conversations between passengers, ringing of mobiles and the intermittent hawker who walked down the aisles shouting “Waterrrrr” or “Tomater soup” or whatever. The few who wished to take a nap invariably snored- and they always fell asleep before I did. These days I go equipped with ear plugs which are quite effective in keeping out most of the noises. I woke up at 4.00 PM ( an hour before my scheduled arrival) surprised at the silence around me. There were three other fellow passengers in my coupe. They talked and laughed animatedly but noiselessly. I removed my ear plugs and was surprised that there was still no sound. I would have panicked about my eardrums but for the fact that I could still hear the clatter of the train.
I watched amazed as the three of them spoke with their lips, hands and a wide array of facial expressions. I soon realized that they were all deaf and dumb. It made me wonder at the remarkable nature of their interactions. There was never a moment in their conversations when one of them could take their eyes of the faces of the others. There was something intense in the communication which we ‘normal’ people ignore. We can talk, narrate, curse or ridicule someone while looking away from them. It is our way of emotionally distancing ourselves when we lie, deceive or have something unpleasant to say. If these special people dared to take their eyes away from the other, there would be no conversation. It would be like putting an ear plug in. Looking into the eyes of others, brings to human interaction a sublime level of intensity and sincerity. I wondered if it would be possible for these three persons to lie or deceive while looking into the face of the other. During a lull in the conversation, the oldest of the three, seeing me watching them, indicated with his hands that the teenager sitting beside him was his daughter. He put a cupped right hand, palm facing downwards and the left hand vertically below, palm facing upwards to indicate a child. I smiled. What else could I do? I was the handicapped one in the crowd. The gentleman then indicated the young handsome man sitting across him and indicated that his daughter and the young man were going to play badminton. He indicated badminton with a telling unmistakable swing of his hands. With my limited dumb charade vocabulary I asked him where they were going. All three immediately turned their attention to me and the older man pulled out a document for me to read. They were on their way from Trivandrum to Lucknow for the national Badminton trials for the deaf and dumb. If they did get selected they could go to South Korea for the world meet. I smiled and indicated a flying airplane by with my hands. They nodded indulgently. I was learning. The older man then revealed through a complex series of actions and lip synchs that he had another daughter and that all four including his wife were deaf and mute. With some difficulty (for me) they managed to ask what I did? I pointed to my mouth and acted out a tooth extraction and they went into paroxysms of appreciative laughter- the only sounds that came out of them. I really was learning. I was just thinking that they must be lucky to not have to use a mobile phone, when the younger man whipped out a Nokia handset. He wanted my number. I wrote it down for him. He indicated that he would message me by gesturing and acting out the process on his mobile keypads. Just as I realized I was catching on the train began to slow down. I was reaching my destination. As the train came to a halt, the sounds of the station came in through the open door of the coach. A cacophony of languages, footfalls and yelling interspersed with those of the hawkers hoarsely vending their tea, coffee and Vadai. Welcome back to the real world. We said our goodbyes with handshakes and I gave the silent universal thumbs up to the two young players. Driving home from the station, I resolved that I will learn the hand language. It would be a great way to spend my old age- gesticulating silently to my wife and breaking out into peals of laughter!!!

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Capital Punishment- State Sponsored Murder

It was black irony on 14th august 2004 when Dhananjoy Chaterjee was executed at the Alipore Correctional facility. It was sad that India’s ‘correctional principles’ involved the termination of life. Seven years later we are preparing for another correction. This time it will be Murugan, China Santhan and Perarivalan, the men who were allegedly involved in the assassination of our former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
This is not a defense for Dhananjoy Chaterjee or the three young men being prepared for the gallows. It is a candid, soul searching look ,at the rights of a civilized society to take away life- any life. Baying for revenge is a natural emotive reaction to a terrible deed.
It took twenty years of deliberation and prevarication to say that these men must be punished with death. Perarivalan whose crime was obtaining two nine volt batteries that detonated the bomb that killed Rajiv Gandhi must have been less than twenty years old at the time of his crime. The criminal justice system had enough time to think and deliberate with detached pragmatism. At the end it was irrational hate and revenge that prevailed. The men must have already died a thousand deaths- waiting for the state to decide.
In analyzing the rationale for legitimate governments to kill legally we must try to answer a fundamental question.
What do you do with criminals?
Criminologists, social scientists, human rights activists and judicial experts are more or less agreed that reformation should be the ultimate aim. It explains the use of the term ‘correctional’. The other two aims of punishment are deterrence and isolation from society. Deterrence certainly has its place in criminal reformation. However death as a form of deterrence has never really worked. The Sri Lankans and the Pakistanis and the Sikh separatists had their own agenda- and they were willing to die for it. How can a death sentence be a deterrent? It is only inviting the Indian Republic to be like a primeval society and take revenge? Is that what the father of our Nation would have wanted? Study after study from around the world has conclusively proved that death penalty has and never will be a deterrent even for the habitual criminal. It is hard for us to believe this because it appears like common sense that the promise of a strong punishment will frighten the criminal. In fact many well-conducted studies have shown that the certainty rather than the severity of punishment, serves as a deterrent. Canada, which abolished death penalty in 1976, has had a decrease in capital crimes by 40% from 1976 to 2002. In America, the southern states with the largest number of people on death row, continues to have a much larger incidence of capital crimes like murder and rape compared to the northern states. Many States in the USA have actually seen a decrease in crime rates after abolishing the death penalty and the introduction of life imprisonment without hope of a parole. Justice should not only be certain but also speedy. These statistics have been reproduced in numerous countries, which chose to scrap the death penalty. Today almost all the countries, including the European Union, South America and many states in the USA have abolished death penalty or do not have it as a government policy. The countries, which chose to retain the death penalty, have abysmal human rights records. The countries which do not have respect for human rights, like Saudi Arabia, have laws that are hardly worth emulating. India needs to decide what kind of example it must adopt as its social and judicial policy. The choice is between that of Europe with its high standard of fairness and Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Iraq, Pakistan and the republic of Congo where even juveniles are punished with death penalty.
The answer to the dangers of allowing hardcore criminals into society may lie in the laws of commutation. It needs to be restructured to ensure that an incorrigible criminal will never go back to society. A life sentence for murder must be ‘for life’. Many ask why the taxpayer’s money should be used to keep them alive. The criminal will have to be accepted by society as a deviant mind, which is the product of his genetic disposition or the ill effects of the socio-political environment. We cannot eliminate them just as we do not eliminate mentally and physically deranged patients or non-productive senior citizens. The welfare state has to take some responsibilities. The only reason for supporting ‘death for the killer’ is a revengeful and barbaric emotion that cannot be a state policy- at least not in our country which has pledged itself as a welfare democracy based on the principles of ‘ahimsa’ propounded by the father of our nation- Mahatma Gandhi.

The Australian Council Against Death Penalty (ACADP) says this about capital punishment:
The most premeditated of all murders.
The only thing it accomplishes is death.
There is no justice or redemption for the criminal.
There is no restitution for the family of the victim.
There is only a dead body.-Another dead body and another group of innocent victims.

To understand the premeditated process of killing, one needs to examine the protocols that are followed. The prisoner knows the date and time and spends it in isolation, while his lawyers make last ditch efforts. There is a death watch to make sure that the prisoner does not kill himself (and thus deprive the state of the privilege). He is asked what he wants to dine on. Dhananjoy’s last meal was two extra pieces of fish, some curd and sweets. It was a small luxury- a few hours before he was to be hanged. Contrary to popular belief most people don’t get anything more than a cheese burger, fries and a soft drink (in the USA). The prison manual in India allows a vegetarian meal (unlimited I am told). Doctors examine and weigh them to make sure they are healthy. In India they are weighed to make sure the rope will hold. If the rope breaks, the prisoner might break his legs, you see. In the USA they are given diapers lest they void and embarrass themselves in the course of dying. They even swab the skin with a disinfectant before administering lethal injection. There is something sick and eerie about the methodical process of planned killing. No wonder the majority of countries with a conscience have done away with capital punishment.
In India there is yet another dimension. Race and religion. Many Tamils do not want the Sri Lankans killed. Many Muslims do not want Afzal Guru killed. Many Sikhs do not want Bhullar killed.  I cannot differentiate one from the other. If Ajmal Kasab had killed randomly in Mumbai or Afzal Guru had played a role in threatening the Parliament then Murugan and others are involved in the murder of a former Prime minister and numerous others. To me these are as heinous as the hundreds of murders that have gone with lighter punishment including the murder of Graeme Staines and his children!! Why is there a double standard in political circles? The Hindi belt is unconcerned about the Sri Lankans. The Hindu fundamentalists are baying for the death of only the Muslim terrorists. Many Sikhs are interested only in the pardon of Bhullar. It is high time that India reconciled itself to the fact that it must stand with the civilized world on the matter of state sponsored murder and have an equal stand on capital punishment. No more killings by the state! Lock away the criminals and throw away the keys if you must. No more Killings!

George Paul.