Topic 1 : A quiet reprieve: On former Indian naval personnel and the Qatar court’s verdict
Context: India did well to work its channels with Qatar away from the limelight.
Introduction
- The decision of the Qatari court of appeals to reduce the capital punishment handed down in October to eight former Indian naval personnel is a major reprieve for the men and their families, and spells relief for the government that has been pursuing diplomatic channels for leniency.
Upholding of the conviction is a disappointment.
- While the detailed judgment is still awaited more than 24 hours after the pronouncement, the upholding of the conviction is a disappointment, and the government and the men’s families must now reassess their legal strategy and evidence of their innocence before filing a review petition with Qatar’s Court of Cassation, the highest in the system.
Other options
- If all avenues of judicial appeal are exhausted, the government will have three options.
- First, to continue to press for a review of the conviction with Qatar’s ruling Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani.
- If that fails, the men could appeal for clemency and ask for a pardon, that Qatar’s rulers have given in the past.
- A third option would be for the men to serve out their terms in India, once the length of incarceration is clarified, according to a 2015 bilateral Agreement on Transfer of Sentenced Persons.
- However, this option would require them to accept the conviction cannot be reversed. Through this process, the government must be seen to be pursuing diplomatic and political efforts at the highest level, to convey the extent that the men are a priority for India.
Significance of the development
- It is significant that the development comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi made his first public outreach to the Qatari leadership — he met the Emir on the sidelines of COP28, on December 1.
- Whether such a political outreach, or a high-level mission to Doha, would have been more productive earlier, after the men were first arrested in August 2022, is a moot point now.
What is commendable!
- It is commendable that New Delhi, in contrast to its stand with Canada over its allegations, has chosen not to react to the case with public rhetoric, especially the kind of targeting of Doha seen in some sections of the media, a move that would have been counterproductive.
- If the case implicating the men is in any way connected to India’s intelligence services, then it is important to consider an appropriate review of any operations that could jeopardise Indians overseas.
- New Delhi has also done well by not allowing the case to become hostage to the growing tensions in the region, over the continuing bombardment of Gaza by Israel.
Conclusion
It is hoped that a consistently calibrated position, careful of Qatar’s sensitivities, and coupled with a quiet, but determined push, would bring the eight Indians back home safely.
Topic 2 : A call for disability inclusion that must be heeded.
Context: There needs to be a focus on solutions that enhance the activities of daily life and the quality of life for the disabled.
Introduction
- It is almost a month since the International Day for Persons with Disabilities (December 3) passed. Yet, we must pause and consider the importance of novel and innovative solutions that enhance two important outcomes for the people affected, i.e., activities of daily life and quality of life.
Focus shifted to innovative solution.
- By calling for “transformative solutions that will lead to inclusive development, leaving no one behind”, the United Nations has shifted the focus back on innovations that reduce disability.
- In the important medical field of “neuropsychiatry” that straddles the brain-mind interface, there have been several treatment innovations with the potential to enhance outcomes.
Neuropsychiatric disorders
- They are, by definition, disabling and present themselves across the lifespan.
- These range from autism, Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and intellectual disability in childhood (317 million), and to mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, eating disorder, addictions, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder through adolescence and adult life (167 million adolescents and 970 million people, globally), traumatic brain injury, spinal injury, epilepsy and headache across the lifespan, stroke, neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s dementia and Parkinson’s disease that appear in old age (276 million neurologically affected individuals in all).
Revamp rehabilitation services
- According to the World Health Organization’s Global Burden of Disease study, 2019, 2·41 billion individuals had conditions that would benefit from rehabilitation, contributing to 310 million Years of Living with Disabilities (YLD).
- However, with rehabilitation often being seen as a disability-specific service, needed by only a few, it has, despite its individual and societal benefits, not been prioritised in countries and is traditionally under-resourced.
Neurology and Psychiatry
- With neurology and psychiatry being closely linked, there exists a continuum of needs between these conditions, often with considerable overlap.
- Rehabilitation services must, therefore, be designed to address the wide spectrum of neurological and mental health problems as opposed to being narrow in concept and specialist led.
- There is a need to build awareness in the community that disablement does not need to be endured and can be treated, even reversed, in a proportion of cases.
Encouragement required.
- There is also a need to encourage medical professionals, medical service providers (government, private and non-profit) as well as public health professionals to consider rehabilitation as an essential service.
- Beyond doctors and nurses, rehabilitation across the lifespan requires a range of professionals: physical and occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, psychological therapists and professional caregivers.
Tap scientific advances.
- There are unique paradigms of care that have emerged through scientific advances that we must consider. A host of non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) procedures have proved themselves to be very useful in the care and rehabilitation of neurological and mental health conditions.
- Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) as a mainstream treatment for both depression and obsessive compulsive disorder and as an adjuvant treatment for diverse conditions: tremors of Parkinson’s disease, Schizophrenia (hallucinations and other psychotic symptoms), addictions, pain and spasticity management especially that following strokes and traumatic brain injury, adolescent and adult Autism Spectrum Disorder, aggression and so on.
Way forward
- With a billion people with disabilities worldwide, 80% in developing countries, the United Nation’s call for disability inclusion being central to the promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to leave no one behind assumes importance.
- People in vulnerable situations such as persons with disabilities are the most excluded and left behind, especially in times of crisis, as was apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Conclusion
- Therefore, it is crucial for governments, the public and private sectors to collaborate and find innovative solutions for and with persons with disabilities, to make the world a more accessible and equitable place.
- An allied technique, Functional (or peripheral) Magnetic Stimulation (FMS), is also available today for pain, spasticity, incontinence and other disabling neurological symptoms.
- Another NIBS technique with great promise is transcranial electrical stimulation (TES) with its many sub-types (direct current, alternate current and random noise).
- The treatment has shown itself to be successful in improving memory and cognition, mood and behaviour, anxiety, tremors, confusion and delirium, and sleep disorders. It has the advantage of being portable and bedsid.