THE BILKIS BANO CASE: HOW MUCH FURTHER CAN WE SINK AS A NATION?

   Nothing reveals better the depths to which we have sunk as a nation and a polity than the remission granted to the 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano case, and the events surrounding this depraved decision. One can't help but notice that the muted reaction to the release of these rapists/ murderers is in sharp contrast to the nation wide eruption of outrage in the Nirbhaya case in 2012- a telling indication of how badly institutions and civil society have been battered and defenestrated by the government, judiciary and media in the last eight years, and how brutalised we have become.

   In 2012 one rape and murder had brought the country to a standstill, with tens of thousands protesting on the streets of Delhi and other towns. But- and here is the difference between the two types of governments- they were allowed to protest without any police brutalities, the victim was flown to Singapore for treatment, the then Prime Minister went to meet the victim and her parents, the accused were tried and executed, a judicial commission was set up to suggest improvements to the relevant laws, and these were promptly amended by Parliament. The Nirbhaya episode was a tragic and condemnable one but the then govt. reacted with sensitivity and responsibility, the judiciary tried to repair the damage, and civil society rose up to the challenge. Compare this with today, the Amritkal of Naya Bharat.

   This has to be said: the Supreme Court has not covered itself with glory in this remission case, and continues on its downward moral slide to irrelevance. To correct the bhakts and the BJP's IT cell, the SC (Supreme Court) has NOT ordered the release of these 11 convicts, that was done by the Gujarat govt. But it has facilitated their remission by the kind of illogical orders we are now getting used to. I am no jurist, for I have long ago given up trying to make sense of the vagaries of Indian jurisprudence, but I do retain some common sense, and this tells me that without two orders of the apex Court even this apology of a government in Gujarat could not have released these dregs of society with such alacrity and cynicism.

   One, the SC overturned a decision of the Gujarat High Court and ordered that the decision for remission had to be taken by the Gujarat, and not the Maharashtra, government. This is inexplicable. Remember, it was the SC itself which had ordered earlier that their trial should be held in Maharashtra and not Gujarat since conditions in the latter state post 2002 were not conducive for a fair trial. (This is just legal gobblydook for "Bilkis Bano would not get justice" in a communally surcharged Gujarat). These 11 were tried, convicted and sentenced in Maharashtra, and it was the Bombay High Court which confirmed their sentences and rejected their appeals. Both legal logic and basic common sense dictated that the issue of remission should also have been decided in Maharashtra, and not Gujarat. This would have been in accordance with the 2016 judgement of a five judge bench of the SC in Sriharan. How could a two judge bench now overrule a larger bench?

   Was the SC unaware of the fact that nothing has changed in Gujarat, at least as far as Muslims are concerned, since 2002 ? That the same rabid political party is in power there (and, as a bonus, at the Center too)? That this party post 2002 had tried everything to save these same accused and that its police had even filed a closure report in this case? That it was the then SC itself which had transferred the case to CBI precisely because it did not trust the state govt.? That witnesses in this case had been constantly complaining that the accused/convicts had been threatening them, even to the point of doing away with them? ( The Indian Express, in a report dated 22.8.2022 has given details of written complaints made to the Minister, Collector and Supdt. of Police between 2017 and 2020). That the administration had not acted on any of these complaints? That all parties in this case- victim, witnesses, accused- all belong to the same village, Randikpur, and therefore the release of the accused would make the lives of the victims and witnesses a nightmare?

   Even a child could see that the government in Gujarat would be biased in deciding on the remission applications. And yet the Supreme Court ordered that the decision would be taken in Gujarat and not Maharashtra where the trial had taken place. This was Error no. I.

   Error no. 2 was the Court's decision that the state Remission Rules of 1992 would apply, not the Center's Regulations of 2014, because the former Rules were in existence when the offence was committed. This eminently suited the convicts and the state govt. because the 1992 Rules did not expressly bar rapists and murderers from getting remission, whereas the central Rules of 2014 did. The ratio decindi for the SC's ruling, however, will not convince any reasonable person that this was the right decision. 

   For the cause of action here was the remission, not the crime: since the remission was being decided in 2022 (and not before 2014) therefore the 2014 rules should have been applied. Remission is always considered with reference to the present, and not the past: the convicts' behaviour and conduct, their families' pecuniary circumstances, the social context, the impact the release would have on society TODAY . Penology and behavioural science are evolving subjects, as are society's attitude to the punitive versus correctional debate, and to freeze it at a point in time thirty years in the past defies logic.

   I also find it hard to understand why Bilkis Bano was not made a party in this case by the SC before it took a decision. Should the victim not have been heard before deciding whether to consider release of the people who had destroyed her life? Nowadays the victim is heard even when accused apply for bail; for remission, therefore, the bar should be set higher, not lower.

   Which is why it is my view that these two decisions of the Supreme Court have unwittingly facilitated and made easier the release of these murderers and rapists.

   Unsurprisingly, there has been not a word from the central or state governments so far: of 11 women Ministers in the Union cabinet not one has cared to comment on the matter. There has been no transparency in the decision making process. We still do not know the reasons for the release, other than the statement of a BJP law-maker that the convicts are " sanskari Brahmins", their conduct cannot be faulted and that he is not convinced of their guilt. We still do not know whether the CBI was consulted on the matter, a legal requirement since the case was prosecuted by this agency. We do not know whether the convicting judge was consulted, as is required by law and convention. We do not know whether the CBI intends to challenge the release in court. The governments at both the Centre and the state have not spoken, and are unlikely to, unless forced by the courts.

   The greatest comedown, however, has been the reaction of our society and polity at large, the best indicator of why we have been dubbed a " failed democracy" and a human rights black hole. There have been a few critques on social media, including Justice(Retd) UD Salvi, the then Sessions Judge who had convicted the eleven. But the darbari media has maintained its usual selective silence, the crusader of 2012, Arvind Kejriwal, has yet to say a word, most Opposition parties are in mute mode. As Mahua Moitra asserts in a recent article, we all risk becoming collectively complicit in this desecration of the rule of law and smothering of our conscience.                                                                                                        But the supporters of the new Hindu rashtra have spoken in no uncertain terms. The released convicts have been garlanded and offered sweets by the VHP (Vishwa Hindu Parishad) acolytes in full public glare, in a flashback of a Union Minister from Bihar offering sweets to the alleged killers of a Muslim man some years back. The troll army continues with its sickening whataboutery of minority appeasement in an earlier dispensation, and killings of Pundits in Kashmir. The Whatsapp and Twitter HUFs ( Hindu Undivided Families) continue their blind support of any action of this govt.

   But I do not wish to be too harsh on society at large. The lack of widespread outrage is , in a way, understandable. Our current rulers brook no dissent or public protest and are ever willing to deploy brute violence to quell them, as the anti-CAA protests have shown. The space for public protest has become a minefield, seeded with draconian laws- sedition, Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, Gangsters Act- and ruled by the bulldozers. Social activists and NGOs - who led the 2002 and 2012 agitations- are dissuaded by the fates of Teesta Setalvad and Himanshu Kumar, the judiciary's own warning to those who seek justice against a rampaging executive. Seeking justice these days is fraught with risks, both within and outside the courts. 

   We are on test as a nation and as a civilisation: who will give justice to Bilkis Bano ? The executive will certainly not, the media will not take up her cause, civil society has been either won over or  bludgeoned into silence, political parties no longer stand by principles. There is only one recourse left, the last recourse in a democracy- the Supreme Court, which now has before it a challenge to the remissions, filed by Suhasini Ali of the CPI and Mahua Moitra of the TMC.  It is the final custodian and guarantor of the rule of law. The country is now invoking that guarantee and pledge, and the Court has to demonstrate that it will be honoured, that it is not just a line written on the shifting sands of time.

MONSOON MOMENTS IN PURANIKOTI.

    Now that the manufactured frenzy of Independence Day is over ( as if India has never celebrated 15th August before), I am happy to report that it is now apple plucking time in Puranikoti. I have a few apple trees on my land and look after them assiduously: I keep pumping in money for their care, like a venture capitalist, and most years suffer the same fate as Anil Ambani. Growing my own apple costs me about five times what purchasing one would cost, partly because I have sticky, not green, fingers and partly because of the fact that, having been Secretary ( Horticulture) for three years I know nothing about growing apples.

                                         

                                                                 [  Ready for plucking ]                 

   But I love parting with my money for the sake of growing my own apples. And they are all 100% organic: the only chemical I use is when I apply the hand sanitiser on my hands after counting out a few more slices of my pension for the benefit of the labour or the carton supplier. There is something magical in witnessing the slow but sure processes of nature- from the leafing to the bud, the bloom and the flower, and finally the tiny fruit itself, becoming redder and larger every day. It is also humbling, for while we may claim we "grow" the apples, they actually grow themselves and we are mere spectators. I like the ringside view, especially the many birds- barbets, Himalayan magpies, sparrows, swallows and bulbuls- who throng the trees these days, munching on the apples and making almost as much noise as their counterparts at a kitty party. They will not, however, touch the dropped apples; they can afford to be choosy at this time of plenty!

                              

                                

                                                 [ Clouds nestled in the valley like fluffy pillows ]

   This is monsoon times in Puranikoti and we residents have the place to ourselves, for the tourists have returned to their beehives in Delhi and Maler Kotla or wherever they emerge from every April. They will renew their assault next month but we have obtained a breather to build up our defenses again. I am of the firm view that the sooner the North Indian Tourist goes extinct as a species, the better it will be for mankind. It's not just their loudness, littering and scrapping. They walk into your property with the aplomb of Moses walking into the Red Sea, pluck your apples and flowers, even indulge in an al-fresco picnic on your lawns! If you object they offer to buy the property off you, or threaten you with their geneology , which will usually contain an MP or MLA or a Deputy Supdt. of Police in the boondocks of Haryana. So now I have kept a dog ( he too is from Haryana, naturally) to even the scales: I wanted to name him Rolex, because he is supposed to be a "watch"dog, but was over-ruled by the family. So the pooch has been christened Brutus, and he regards all tourists as honourable men and is therefore of no use except to show that the Shuklas know their Shakespeare.

   But I better not bad-mouth the tourists too much; after all they are the ones who put the daily bread ( not to mention the evening peg) on our tables. Puranikoti is home- stay country: 80% of the houses and establishments here are guest houses catering to the migratory hordes, and one would be wise not to anatagonise the good neighbours. An occasional woof-woof is okay but it should stop short of biting the hand that feeds one. Time to move on to other topics.

                                           

                                                   [ A rare double rainbow in Puranikoti ]

   It's been a very wet monsoon this year: in all of July and August so far we have had barely four sunny days. But I'm a happy man, and for a change I owe this unusual condition to the government, or, to be more precise, to Rajneesh, who was the Principal Secretary ( Forests) till last month. Those who suffer my blogs regularly will recollect that on 15th April I had posted a blog( Purani Koti Diary- Of Tourists and Water Woes) wherein I had argued for building check dams on the forest nullahs to contain the run-offs from the rains, store this water and revive the myriad streams criss-crossing the Puranikoti forests. I had specifically pointed to, and posted a photo of, a nullah near my house which at one time ran throughout the year but had now gone dry.

  Within a week of the blog appearing Rajneesh had come to meet me along with the Conservator of Forests, Shimla, checked out this nullah, and started work on three check dams on it. They have now been constructed and are functioning beautifully. They trap all the rain water and the vanished little brook has reappeared as if by magic and gurgles happily the whole day long, even if it has not rained for a few days. This water will meet the irrigation needs of the downstream villages for the winter crop of peas long after the rains are gone. It will rejuvenate the forests by providing moisture in the sub-soil and will also be a boon for the wildlife, especially the pheasants and jungle fowl that nest in the bushes. Thank you, Rajneesh and Sharmaji.

                                       

                                     [ The little stream flows again! Check dam is visible in background]                                                                           (  All photographs by the author )

   And now I must repair to my study with my single malt and soda to peruse the latest book by my good friend and neighbour, Navtej Sarna, formerly of the IFS. It's titled CRIMSON SPRING, a novel built around the Jalianwala Bagh massacre. Navtej is a master at synthesising history and fiction; his research is painstaking, and if there are any gaps in it I'm sure the single malt shall provide the missing links. 

   And so, with the tourists gone, the apples decking my trees like Christmas lights, the avian orchestra and cicadas on song, my neighbourhood brook flowing again, the amber fluid within reach and Navtej's book casting its own spell, I feel like Omar Khayyam : Purani Koti, folks, is Paradise enow.

THE NATION THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS

   I am not aware whether Aldous Huxley, George Orwell and Lewis Carrol ever collaborated on a book or not, but had they wanted to, the India of today would have been the perfect subject for them. For it contains elements of  the sinister,  the malevolent and the ridiculous that would have fascinated them. It contains both, Orwell's  nightmare of oppression imposed from the outside and Huxley's fear that we would succumb to our own prejudices and egoism. The pain of one and the smugness of the other have both combined to create a nation just as grotesque as the one Lewis Carrol had imagined.

   Naya Bharat is a topsy-turvy world of illogical behaviour and cracked mirrors where appearances can be deceptive- and dangerous. It can be best described in the words of Alice in THE LOOKING GLASS: "If I had a world of my own everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it is. You see?"  You don't? That's because you're looking in the wrong mirror; take a peek into Alice's looking glass and you'll see how contorted and grotesque is the reality of today's India where nothing is what it should be and nothing is what it appears to be. Bear with me, dear reader, while I guide you through this hall of mirrors where the illusion IS the truth and confusion is the leitmotif. Substance has been replaced with symbolism and reality with make-believe.

  Just consider some of the contradictions, the lies that masquerade as the truth. A tribal President is tomtommed as proof of the government's concern for the under privileged Adivasis, even as thousands of tribals are evicted from their lands every year and rendered destitute to enable projects that will make a few billionaires even richer. Even as I write this the tribal populations of Hardeo Anand ( Chattisgarh), Dehang Patkai (Assam), and Saranda ( Jharkhand) forests face eviction and destitution to make way for coal mines and hydel projects. An amendment to the Forest Conservation Act and Forest Rights Act is being pushed through that will deny them any say in the diversion of their lands for projects. Can one incumbent in Rashtrapati Bhavan compensate for this exploitation ? Where does the truth lie?

   Take our higher judiciary, especially the Supreme Court. We have, says the Law Minister, the most independent and powerful judiciary in the world. That would certainly be true if we go by our Constitution, perhaps the most enlightened and progressive in the world. But the facts on the ground are very different, as pointed out by Kapil Sibal and Prashant Bhushan just last week. The latter goes so far as to say that the judiciary has become the biggest threat to human rights in India. Sibal says we can no longer expect justice from the Supreme Court. And both may just be right, if the last few years are anything to go by, notwithstanding the pious sermons of mylords at public functions and exhortations post their retirement.

   We thought, before 2014, that ADM JABALPUR was an aberration; it now turns out that it was just a trailer, what film magazines call a "teaser", except that a teaser is not half as dangerous as the full movie that is playing out every day these days. The judiciary is expected to protect us from the excesses of the state, to fearlessly ensure that we are not deprived of our constitutional rights. In practice, however, the BJP's 2024 promises to be a sequel to Orwell's 1984. Because our "independent" Supreme Court has held that if you pursue justice for 20 long years you are a conspirator and should be sent to jail, if you seek accountablity for the deaths of 27 tribals in a dubious police encounter you shall pay a fine of Rupees Five lakhs (which will go the government headed by a tribal President, don't forget). It has held (under certain Acts) that a court HAS to believe the police version and therefore cannot give bail to an accused, no matter how flimsy the "evidence" against him or her; that you will be presumed to be guilty until you can prove your innocence; that an ED (Enforcement Directorate) official is not a police officer even though he can grill you for 57 hours, arrest you and deprive you of your liberty, can attach all your properties and keep you in jail indefinitely. It has held that even though there is no proof that a temple existed at the site of a mosque, and that the mosque was razed illegally, the disputed site belongs to those who demolished the mosque. It takes "evidence" from the government in sealed covers, refuses to either divulge it or share it with the other parties or petitioners, and then pronounces judgement based on this secret information. And to top it all, it will not decide on cases where the government is clearly on weak ground- the Electoral bonds, Article 370, the reconstitution of Kashmir, sedition laws, Citizenship Amendment Act, to mention just a few. But the world is told that the rule of law prevails in India , and we are supposed to believe it. Meanwhile, democracy withers on the vine and the judges move on to cushy sinecures.

   The Prime Minister tells an international audience that Indian federalism has never been stronger and that it should be a model for the world. This, barely 40 days after his government and party brought down the seventh elected government in the country in the last eight years! During that period a state has been denotified and carved out into two Union territories, something which has never even been contemplated in the past. Central police and regulatory agencies are pitted against state police on an almost daily basis, cases being investigated by state police are arbitrarily transferred to central agencies to avoid any embarrassment to Delhi, the Chief Minister of Delhi has been effectively defenestrated with the Supreme Court's blessings, the All India Services are slowly being converted into a Central Service, states are regularly denied their financial dues by an unapologetic Union Finance Ministry, there is no consultation with state Chief Ministers on important legislative matters, Article 293(3) of the Constitution is being misused to fetter the right of the states to raise borrowings even as the Center itself merrily pushes the country into the abyss of debt. But federalism is flourishing in India, we are told by the Prime Minister, and surely he is an honourable man. 

   Moving away from the world of polity into the world of letters and the arts, the mirror tells us India has always (quite rightly) occupied the heights of creativity- in literature, mathematics, science, economics, philosophy, painting, architecture. We have produced some of the greatest epics, schools of thought, drama and poetry. India has given the world three of its greatest religions, 12 Nobel laureates, 4 Booker Prize winners, the world's oldest university in Nalanda. Modern India publishes 144000 newspapers and periodicals and 90000 books every year, apart from 1.7 million self-published works. It is the world's largest producer of films- between 1700 and 2000 every year. A legacy that should make us proud.

   But the looking glass tells us an entirely different story. Every creative work is today tested on the touchstone of religion and bigotry, not art. And so this year's Booker Prize winner, Geetanjali Shree, is ignored by the government, her massive achievement not even acknowledged; instead she has an F.I.R. registered against her in Kanpur for " offending" some troglodyte's religious feelings in the book, the WEEK periodical is booked for an image of the Goddess Kali which offended some other dinosaur, a comedian is jailed for a month for a joke he never cracked, films are regularly " boycotted" if their leading actors belong to the minority community or if they attempt to interpret history in a way that does not suit the majority community. Creative writing has become a risky venture in Naya Bharat, for if the police don't get you, the bhakts will. Which is the correct mirror ?

   The contradictions and masquerading, the difference between appearances and reality, never seem to end. "Dharm Sansads" or religious gatherings are used to exhort violence against minority community members; judges proclaim that "bail is the rule" but refuse to release the likes of Omar Khalid or the dozen Elgar Parishad accused; a court in Uttarakhand rules that no meat shop can be allowed within 500 meters of the Ganga river because of the sentiments of Hindus attached to it, ignoring the fact that the same river is used for discharging sewage in the millions of liters and dumping human carcasses in the thousands; the Prime Minister says we should focus on educating the girl child, even as he remains silent when thousands of girls are not allowed to attend schools and colleges because they are wearing "hijabs"; the government never tires of applauding its economic performance and the arrival of the "acche din", even as one million HNI (High Net Worth) citizens have fled the country in the last five years; it talks ceaselessly of how it has controlled black money, even as the deposits by Indians in Swiss banks have reached record highs! How can one not agree with the Walrus when he moans: " My desire to be well informed is currently at odds with my desire to remain sane."

  If the horrors of today were not so malevolent and dangerous in their implications, I would say we are living in a make- believe world. That the spell would be broken any moment and Alice's looking glass would be replaced by the mirror again. But I'm afraid that would be deluding myself, for the curse is here to stay. In the words of Alfred Lord Tennyson:

 The mirror crack'd from side to side,

 " The curse has come upon me," cried 

The Lady of Shallot.

Camelot remains out of reach.

TIME TO THROW OUT THE "THROW-AWAY ECONOMY "

    About four years ago, in an effort to renovate my perennial dumb image, I bought a middle range smart phone. My image has improved marginally since then, but the phone battery is now giving way: it never charges more than 50%, and so I have to charge it at least three times a day, even though I'm not a heavy user. I have been trying to replace the battery but no one can help, including the manufacturer of the phone. I have been variously advised by friends that it cannot be done, that original batteries are just not available, that even if I were to find a battery it would cost as much as the phone, and that I should simply chuck away the phone, save my data and buy a new phone.

   Welcome to the Throw-away economy (TAE) , a major reason why the planet is warming up faster than the audience at a strip-tease joint in the middle of summer. A TAE refers to the prevalence of consumer goods ( "non-durables" in marketing parlance) which only last for a short period of time. When they stop working we throw them away and replace them with new goods. Included in this genre are nearly all electronic goods, computers, phones, watches, music systems, medical devices, TVs, modems, etc. Also included are packing materials, gift wrappings, thermocol, single use plastic items.

   Globally, 50 million tonnes of e-waste is produced every year, and not even 10% of this is recycled or recovered. The USA discards 150 million smart phones every year, the global figure would be mind boggling considering that there are more than 8 billion phone connections. A recent survey shows that in the West a phone is replaced with a new model every 2 years. This is the TAE run amok and is a recipe for environmental disaster. 

   Most of the items mentioned above are not essential for either our health or existence, as anyone who has received an Amazon parcel can testify- layers and layers of bubble wrap and paper packing inside a cardboard carton filled with more plastic ticker tape. And this is not small change: Amazon makes 7 billion deliveries every year and uses 600 million pounds of plastic, all of which is going into landfills, forests and oceans and will be around for the next 200 hundred years, even after homo sapiens has killed itself with its own waste, as Chief Seattle had prophesied almost 250 years ago. We can live just as well without this half a billion pounds of plastic.

   With the whole world going digital and being wired electronically, the TAE is producing millions of tonnes of electronic waste every year which is equally hazardous to human health and the environment. Most countries have no clue as to how to dispose of them safely which is why major producers of this waste are dumping them in under-developed countries of Asia and the Pacific. And as global consumption continues to increase so does the TAE waste, posing a major threat to the natural environment, wildlife and even humans.

   The TAE was not inevitable, as people of my generation can vouch for: we drank milk from bottles not plastic pouches, we repaired our old cars, radios, gramophones and watches repeatedly till they lasted for a thousand years, our ink pens lasted even longer, we didn't throw away our shoes when they got worn out- we had them resoled. The throw-away economy arrived sometime in the 1970s when corporates got greedy for quicker profits, when technology was allowed to run rampant over the environment, when we as a race became too lazy and governments continued to be about five decades behind the innovations that were taking place.

   Today, "built in obsolescence" is part of the business model of every manufacturer: the product is deliberately designed to last for the minimum number of years that the market can sustain without revolting, and then has to be thrown away and replaced ( the reason why you cannot get a new battery for your phone). Part of this devilish strategy is to make it impossible for the product to be repaired. There are various devious ways in which this is done: impose "do not touch" warranty conditions, deny product specs or information to third party repair shops, non-supply of spare parts. The consumer is ultimately left with no option but to junk his old item and buy a new one.

   There is also the  "expiry date" racket in the booming pharmaceutical and nutraceutical industries. Every medicine or supplement comes with an expiry date which is about a year or two down the line. I can't even remember how many bushels of the bloody stuff I've thrown away, petrified of the ill effects of consuming an expired medication. But the whole thing is a scam, I now discover, just another aspect of the TAE. The US military, saddled with a billion dollars of "expired" medicines in its stocks,  commissioned a study to find out whether these medicines were actually unsafe for consumption. The study, carried out by the FDA( Food and Drugs Authority) tested more than 100 drugs and found that 90% of them retained their potency and effectiveness, without any harmful effects, years after their expiry dates, some even after 15 years! ( The Wall Street Journal, March 29, 2000). This was true across the board, with the exception of anti-biotics and perhaps insulin. Most drugs experts concur with these findings, and it is clear that expiry dates have more to do with marketing rather than with science. The premise is simple: the customer has to be persuaded to throw away the old stuff so that he can buy more of the new stuff. It's the same with cars, with a "new" model being launched every second year; my father drove the same model of the Landmaster and Ambassador for forty years, though he did change the vehicle every 7-8 years. But he changed cars because of the miles ramped up on the milometer. not because he was compelled to keep up with the Junejas whenever a "new model" was unleashed on an unsuspecting public.

   Have you wondered why each type of smartphone has its own charger which is not interchangeable with the chargers of other phones? So that when you change your phone( upgrade?) you have to buy a new charger too and throw the old one away! Another corporate strategem of the Throw Away Economy. The European Union has now passed a law that makes it mandatory for the digital phone industry to have a common charger for all phone models. This one simple law alone will reduce electronic waste by 10000 tonnes and save the consumer 250 million Euros every year. Similar unethical, avaricious, coercive and environmentally damaging corporate policies are being replicated across industries.

   But their days are numbered, as consumer and environmental activists across the globe mount pressure on governments and corporates to reform the TAE. New York state has just passed a ground breaking FAIR REPAIR ACT, 2022 that compels all digital/ electronics manufacturers to make public/supply repair information, tools, parts, software for their product to third party repair shops ( and not just their own company service centers). This will enable users to get their gadgets repaired at reasonable prices and not compelled to buy new replacements. The EU is considering a similar legislation; an Indian govt. spokesperson has announced that India is also working on a similar law, after banning single use plastic products just this month.

   The Throw Away Economy model may be enriching the fat cats but it is disastrous for the environment; in the long run it also does not make economic sense because it mis-allocates resources for unnecessary consumption. There is a pressing need to move to a "circular economy" business model of reuse, repair and recycle.  We can no longer afford to throw away anything. If industry and Big Capital do not make the change on their own, then governments have to compel them through a mix of incentives, taxes and penal action. There are four steps governments need to take to move in this direction:

[a] BANS  ( all non-essential items which can be replaced with environment friendly substitutes; the          ban on single use plastic is one such measure.]

[b] TAXES ( on items whose use should be discouraged/ minimised).

[c] INCENTIVISE (to encourage industry to reuse/ repair. For example, a company in Sweden has invented a process by which printed paper can be used again without pulping it. The printed sheets are passed through a laser machine which erases the printing on the paper, and the sheet can be used again for printing/ typing. This can be done ten times. It can potentially save millions of trees from being axed every year. A shoe company is making materials for its shoes from sea-weed, doing away with the need for rubber or PVC. Governments need to encourage such innovation through fiscal instruments.)

[d] EXTENSION OF PRODUCER/ MANUFACTURER RESPONSIBILITY. ( The responsibility of the producer should not end with the sale of its product, but should extend also to its service, repair  and disposal. For example, battery manufacturers should be made responsible for collection, reuse or safe disposal of dead batteries, Amazon and Flipkart should be required to pick up and dispose of their wrapping material and cartons, Coca Cola or Amul or Mother Dairy should devise a system whereby their bottles, cartons and pouches are properly collected and disposed off. For far too long these responsibilities of society and corporates have been discharged by the humble and unsung rag-pickers and kabariwallahs- it's high time the money-bags stepped up to the plate and did the right thing by their customers and the planet.

   The Throw Away Economy is not sustainable, either environmentally or economically. Citizens need to be sensitised to the effects of mindless and needless consumption, corporates have to place the interests and good of the planet above their profit margins, and governments must step in with legislation to ensure that all this happens. This is beginning to happen but the process needs to be speeded up as we are running out of time and natural resources.

   So that the next time your phone battery drains out, you can, hopefully, buy another battery for a couple of thousand rupees instead of having to buy a whole new phone for twenty times that. And being forced to chuck another 500 gms of e-waste as your modest contribution to the destruction of Mother Earth.