To
The President,
Republic of India,
Rashtrapati Bhavan,
New Delhi- 110004
Sub: Appealing for legalizing Active Euthanasia or mercy killing or Physician Assisted suicide in India
Respected Sir,
“If thou cannot save me, why unfurl such deafening arrangements then?”
Rabindranth Thakur
I, the undersigned, probably the citizen of India (“probably”, as the Indian citizen is yet to be proved by the tiresome processes of NPR-NRC-CAA), solemnly declare that I am an atheist or otherwise agnostic, inhabitant of no-nation (cf. Rabindranth Thakur) and an earthian. I am appealing for legalizing Active Euthanasia or Mercy Killing or Physician Assisted suicide as my life has become too burdensome in the Indian republic for the reasons depicted below.
The following statistics (if statistical data are to be believed! According my personal experience, Sahibs blame this country for poor data quality) of India (Population: 135.26 Crores and still counting, July, 2020) speaks for itself about the condition of the country. It has worsened during the catastrophic situation due to COVID-19 outbreak:
- Hunger Index: rank 102 out of 117 qualifying countries (2019)
- Unemployment rate: 8.74% of the population (2020)
- GDP growth rate: 1.9% post-lockdown (2020), following global recession
- According to The Economist (2016), India occupied the ninth position in global Crony-Capitalist Index, having crony sector wealth that accounts for 3.4% of the total GDP.
- Happiness Index: Rank 140 out of 156 countries (2019)
- Corruption Index: Rank 80 out of 180 countries (2020)
- Informal sector workers: 93% of the total workforce (2019). Disinvestment is the major reason behind it. Supposed citizens of India used to elect their government to switch over from public sector to private sector. What a paradox!
- Availability of Hospital beds: 0.055 per 1,000 population (2020)
- Defense Budget: The union government justifiably allocated Rs 3.37 lakh crore as the defense budget for the financial year 2020-21. (compared to 7, it is observed that the death industry is proliferated by the government itself)
- Malnourished population: 195.9 million malnourished people (2015-17); one-third of the world’s malnourished children belong to India.
- Carbon Footprints: Emission of 2,299 million tonnes of Carbon Dioxide (2018). No visible step is observed to save the planet from the consequences of anthropogenic global heating by the Indian Government. Even there is no anticipatory policy regarding the rehabilitation of climate refugees. Instead, the government is justifiably busy with ostentatious display of statues, temples, anti-green bullet trains etc. along with planned deforestation for mining and other developmental projects.
- Poverty index: rank 49. Two-thirds of people in India live in poverty: 68.8% of the Indian population lives on less than $2 a day. Over 30% even have less than $1.25 per day. More than 36 crore Indians still cannot afford three square meals a day. India had 73 million people living in extreme poverty which makes up 5.5% of its total population. India’s top 1% owns half of national wealth.
- External Debt is nearly about Rupees 86 trillion (as on 02/05/2020)! However, Indian Government has written off the astronomical figure of money, 68,607 crores owed by the super-rich people at the time of international crisis. The middle-class depositors of the Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited, Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative Bank etc., are undergoing insolvency. It’s a different type of “capital” punishment for them.
- Suicide rate: About 800,000 people die by suicide worldwide every year, of these 1, 35, 000 (17.8%) are from India. India now accounts for over a third of the world’s annual female suicides and nearly a fourth of male suicides.
- India is also a victim of Lawrence Summers’ (chief economist of the World Bank 1991-93) memo “Let Them Eat Pollution”. Majority of Indians have lost their herd immunity for consuming spurious products of so-called Green Revolution (empirical data not available).
- An average human being needs 15 litres of water per day to meet the basic needs and easement, which roughly amounts to more than 50 litres per family. In the rural areas, more than 50% women walk up to minimum 5km on a daily basis for necessary consumption. On an average, they have to undertake 2-3 trips to and fro with earthen pots on their heads (15-20 litres capacity each). Carrying such heavy loads of water on their heads leads to chronic biological complications. Unsafe water also leads to an annual surge in infant mortality. Children of nearly 100 million households in India are left to survive without water. Due to the non-availability of safe drinking water, 2 lakh Indians have to die every year and 600 million of the Indian population encounter extreme water crisis. Kindly note that, I do not have any access to water at my home.
Therefore, I do not have any will to live or extend my life-span in such an unhappy land. Apart from such intolerable pains caused by such macro-reasons, there are other particular individual reasons for my appeal:
1. I am an atheist, or otherwise agnostic, therefore, I am not fit for the ruling party’s ideology, which unofficially propagates mono-religious Indian state. Moreover, as a Homo sapiens sapiens, I am against all sorts of discrimination based on caste and creed. Therefore, I must be killed without pain. Kindly note that Narendra Dabholkar, M. M. Kalburgi, Govind Pansare, Gauri Lankesh et al. were mercilessly killed for raising dissenters’ voice. All of them were Homo sacers as it was defined in the ancient Roman Law.
2. As I said earlier, following Rabindranath Thakur, that I am an inhabitant of no-nation and am confident enough to erase (at least mentally) the arbitrariness of imagined geographies based on some modular forms, viz. race, religion, language etc. Therefore, I am an “anti-national” and atheist inhabitant/occupant of this land. Thus, I am opposing the pathological nationalism contrary to the ruling party’s ideology. Therefore, I must be killed with honour and without further pain.
3. Despite serving a Central Government-funded autonomous academic institute for almost 28 years, I could not satisfy the demands of that institute. So, I did not get my due promotions. Therefore, I must further be punished for spoiling an esteemed academic institute’s reputation and corporate agenda. (My partial CV is available here:
https://spbu.academia.edu/DEBAPRASADBANDYOPADHYAY)
4. I lost a huge amount of money for attending a prestigious non-residential fellowship at the Central Institute of Indian Languages, Ministry of HRD, Mysore, in 2003, as that was considered as residential fellowship according to the whims of the then director. This was also a “capital” punishment for me.
5. My hard-earned arbitrary money-signifier deposited in an AAA-rating company is stuck in a shadow-bank (approved by the RBI) due to insolvency and lengthy bureaucratic procedure. It is alleged that the ruling party along with the underworld have taken donations from this shadow bank. It is unbearable pain for me and my family. Therefore, I must legally be killed without pain so that my family can get their insurance dues without any legal obstructions.
6. Despite being a tax-payer, I do not get any easement (for example, water, electricity etc. [I could not satisfy the itching palms of the municipal personnel]) from the welfare state. I have to arrange it on my own. I have adopted rooftop rainwater harvesting system.
7. As I am taking the electric connection from a private company, so also I have to take help from private hospitals for healthcare. The police did not provide me and my family security, though informed earlier through G.D., by anticipating the likely consequences, when I was attacked by a gang of goons on the 10th of February, 2019. Therefore, I am feeling insecure in this state.
8. I must confess that I am also a misogynist, a patriarch and an adulterous man (as justifiably alleged by the others along with my family-members) as I am physically torturing my family for imposing or indoctrinating my own anti-social ideology; Thus the phallus of Oedipus or Yayati (metaphor for fascism) is embedded within my heart. And I support such neurotic attitude. Therefore I must be punished for such crime. I do not have any right to live.
I think, following Arthur Schopenhauer, that death is the purpose of life (i.e., being-towards-death). Denial of being-towards-death entails will to life, i.e., will to power (it is manufactured by the other. Despite the fact of state-sponsored death industry i.e., manufacturing arms and ammunitions, the welfare state can do no wrong. On the contrary, the statutory warning in the tobacco packets: “Cigarette Smoking is injurious to health”, is made mandatory by the welfare state-itself—state is taking care of our health. What a paradox! That “will to live” further entails will to suffer. Who does welcome sufferings? Therefore, self-annihilation or buying death (in the context of capitalist society) is epistemologically acceptable. To summarize: “will to live” entails will to suffer.
In this way, by voluntarily desiring death penalty (India is among the 55 countries, out of 195 countries of the world that still retains the capital punishment) as my legal human right, I am also legitimizing the sovereign state as an omniscient object of my neurotic desire. Moreover, as a consumer of death, I wish to by death-commodity as I know that euthanasia will be under the circuit of exchange value in the context of crony capitalism.
Keeping in mind the above scenario, this appeal is made to the Government of India for legalizing Active Euthanasia or Mercy Killing or Physician Assisted suicide.
Yours most obedient servant,
DEBAPRASAD BANDYOPADHYAY
COPY TO:
- The Honourable Prime Minister, Government of India
- The Honourable Chief Justice, Supreme Court of India
APPENDIX
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT RETENTIONIST COUNTRIES:
Out of 195 countries in the world, 140 countries have abolished capital punishment.
Countries that carried out executions between 2013 and 2017:
Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Botswana, Chad, China, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Nigeria, North Korea, Oman, Pakistan, Palestinian Territories, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Taiwan, Thailand (2018), United Arab Emirates, USA, Vietnam and Yemen. (Due to ongoing conflicts in Libya and Syria, Amnesty International is not able to confirm that judicial executions were carried out in these countries).
The 21 countries that did not carry out an execution in those years despite not having abolished the death penalty:
Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Comoros, Cuba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominica, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guyana, Jamaica, Lebanon, Lesotho, Qatar, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
EUTHANASIA STATUS
- As of March 2018, Active voluntary euthanasia is legal in the Netherlands, Belgium, Colombia, Luxembourg, and Canada.
- Physician Assisted suicide is legal in Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, the Australian state of Victoria and in the U.S. states of Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Hawaii, Vermont, Montana, Maine, New Jersey, California, and in the District of Columbia.
- Passive Euthanasia: India, South Korea, Majority of states/countries in North America, Australia and Europe.
- Either Illegal or “unknown” status in rest of the countries.
