Volume 7

The Cursor
Volume VII
Page 02 - Deciphering Thapar MUN ‘21
Page 04 - The Specter of Dissent
Page 05 - Myanmar Military Coup
Page 10 - Ritebite Max Nutrition
Date of Issue:
05 / 03 / 2021

Deciphering Thapar MUN’21
As we are heading closer to the conference, one might be struck by infinite questions regarding
Thapar MUN 2021. To resolve all your queries in a go, here are some Frequently Asked Questions
(FAQs) about Thapar MUN’21:
Q1. What is Thapar MUN?
A. Thapar Model United Nations is the annual 2-day long MUN Conference organized by Thapar
MUN Society. Over the years Thapar MUN has developed into a platform for students to build and
amplify the skills of debating, diplomacy, critical thinking, public speaking and researching.
Q2. When is Thapar MUN 2021 scheduled for?
A. Thapar MUN 2021 Conference is scheduled for 13th-14th March 2021.
- Suvrat Arora
Q3. Who all can apply for Thapar MUN’21? Am I eligible to apply?
A. Here’s the good news! There is no eligibility requirement for Thapar MUN. Just loads of
enthusiasm and willingness to participate are the only requisites. Make sure you apply as soon as
possible to grab your preferred allotments.
Q4. Why should I bother to participate in Thapar MUN 2021 at all?
A. Well, we’ve got that covered already! Go check out the Cursor Vol. 4 in the archives where we
provide 13 prominent reasons that will surely compel you to participate in MUN conferences.
The Cursor archive: bit.ly/MUNSociety-cursor
Q5. But things are not back to normal yet! How will the conference take place?
A. Usually, the conference is organized at the TIET Patiala campus in person and is a 2 day-long
conference. But due to the current extraordinary circumstances, the conference, this year, will
take place in online mode.
Delegate Applications:
https://linktr.ee/TUMUN2021
2

Q6. What are the committees and agendas for Thapar MUN 2021?
A. The following committees will be simulated in Thapar MUN Intra 2020:
1. United Nations General Assembly (UNGA-SPECPOL): Discussion on the status of non self
governing territories.
2. United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC): Deliberation on human rights violations
of people in areas of conflict with special emphasis on protection against war crimes.
3. World Health Organisation (WHO): Challenges faced by health systems due to COVID-19
with special emphasis on availability and affordability of a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine
for all.
4. All India Palitical Parties Meet (AIPPM): Deliberation on electoral reforms with special
emphasis on the feasibility of One Nation One Election.
5. Stakeholders’ Meet: Deliberation on the prospective outcomes of the Indian Agriculture Acts
2020.
6. Committee X: Korean War
Q7. The debating part seems too overwhelming for me! Can I be a part of the conference
without participating in the debate?
A. Definitely yes! Thapar MUN 2021 is also simulating the International Press (IP). The
International Press welcomes participation as reporters and caricaturists. The reporters cover
the committees in the form of articles while the caricaturists capture the conference as sketches
and illustrations.
Q8. How do I stay informed about and connected with the conference?
A. Well, that’s pretty simple. Stay connected via Thapar MUN Society’s social
media handles to remain updated.
Now that you have a clearer picture of what Thapar MUN 2021 is
and most of your queries stand resolved, hope to see you at Thapar
MUN’21 on 13th-14th March 2021.
3

The Specter of Dissent
The language of a civil society embodied in
the form of freedom and solidarity has served
to be a perfect antidote for the power and
profit-hungry state of this country. When the
government interprets peaceful protests as a
grave offence and a global conspiracy, the first
casualty in a democratic structure is freedom
of speech.
Dissent is an integral part of a democratic
society. If a country aims to grow in a holistic
way: criticism, dissent and the temper for
questioning is an utmost necessity. Merely
because certain groups oppose, those in
power cannot take away their right to oppose
any action of the government as long as the
dissent is peaceful.
- Rohan Kapoor
We are condemned to discuss, the legality
behind Disha Ravi’s arrest and how India’s
image degraded with a tweet from a young
environmental activist. To use one’s own sense
of right and wrong has proved to be gullible and
to depend on what the regime says is relatively
safer. There are certain sections of society that
do not get support from the government due
to various factors. For their voices to be heard
by the masses, Dissent turns out to be their
last resort to ensure that the core values of the
nation such as non-partisanship exists in the
true sense.
The idea of dissent is subjective as it can also
harm the narratives in the national interest
which may have a positive outcome. There
are cases where the promotion of violence
under the name of freedom of expression has
been observed. Excessive dissent has led to an
environment of political instability. During
such scenarios, the real issues get buried under
the weight of political benefits. Therefore,
dissent is a tool that has to be used in the
right sense and right measure. Misuse of this
provision under any circumstance will degrade
its existing value.
4

Myanmar Military Coup
In the early hours of Monday, 1st of February
in Myanmar, the Myanmar army’s TV station
announced that the power has been handed over
to Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing and
a state of emergency has been declared for a year
in Myanmar. Aung San Suu Kyi and the President
were arrested and detained along with several
other democratically elected leaders. This is the
third time since the country’s independence
from the British in 1948, that the military has
seized power, leading to an autocratic regime,
with the earlier ones involving suppression of
human rights and war crimes. Later on, the
military decided to give back power but the
generals continued to exercise control over
major ministerial portfolios.
Even though Myanmar was declared to be a
democracy, the political leaders, continued
to cooperate closely with the military to the
extent of denying the Rohingya Genocide
by the military, in the International court
of justice (2019). In the November 2020
elections, NLD had again obtained a
majority of seats and was thereby eligible
to form the government, whereas the
military-backed party USDP had
performed poorly. With
many other tensions
between the NLD
and the military
already known
before, it can
- Abhinav Tyagi
be easily concluded that the military decided
to settle the scores by levelling allegations of
mass voter fraud against Aung San Suu Kyi
and her associates. The election commission
of Myanmar dismissed the presence of proof of
any such voter fraud. The Coup was also timed
before the first session of the parliament, which
was to be held soon after.
The coup has received widespread international
condemnation, with the UN Secretary General,
Antonio Guterres claiming it to be a “serious
blow to democratic reforms”. The US and UK
have reacted with sanctions on military leaders.
Beijing urged all sides to “resolve differences”.
The neighbouring countries dismissed the coup
as an internal matter. India, though expressed
it’s “deep concern” regarding the restoration of
democracy, cannot make any aggressive steps
for the same. India has a lot of investments in
form of developmental projects in Myanmar,
which serve as potential economically beneficial
routes between India and East Asia. Apart from
this, any aggressive reaction or sanctions like
the US could result in Myanmar seeking closer
ties with China. Henceforth, considering the
aforementioned facts, it would be beneficial for
India to continue to seek diplomatic closeness
with Myanmar Military and take into close
consideration any such factors which may affect
the Indian-Myanmar diplomatic relationships.
5

The Engineered Assassin’s Quest
for Excellence!
No matter how good your batting or bowling
is, every team wants an individual who can
contribute in more than one facet of the game.
The balance that an all-rounder provides is
something that every team desires and needs
in all three forms of the game. In Tests, there
is no doubt that all-rounders have made teams
dominant. West Indies had the likes of Sir
Garfield Sober and Sir Vivian Richards to win
them Tests in the 60s and 80s. However, as useful
that they might be, the shorter the format, the
more useful an all-rounder becomes.
- Piyush Zaware
still about out to promote new entrant Hardik
Pandya as a genuine all-rounder in the team,
we seemingly end up ignoring another cricketer
who has just crossed an important milestone in
all-round performance – Ravichandran Ashwin.
The 34-year- old hit a century in the second test
against England with another five-wicket haul
putting him in the pantheon of greats! He also
holds the record of being the fastest cricketer
to reach the milestone of 2,000 test runs and
250 wickets. He has even gone past the fabled
quartet of the eighties comprising Kapil Dev,
Richard Hadlee, Imran Kha,n and Ian Botham
on this occasion.
You don’t need a legendary all-rounder to win
your Test matches over a while and Australia
was a testimony to this. Barring Australia
when one looks back at some of the iconic test
teams, we encounter all-rounders who provide
much-needed stability to an already enhanced
unit. England had Botham and then Flintoff
later, the Proteas had the might of Jacques
Kallis and Shaun Pollock, the Lankans had the
services of Sanath the Kiwis had Hadle,e and
later Vettori at their disposal and our beloved
neighbours had a gem of an allrounder in
Imran Khan. India’s tryst with allrounders
began right after Kapil Dev’s retirement. Till
the time we had Kapil Dev we were a class
outfit with one of the world’s greatest
allrounders at our service. Speaking
purely about allrounders in
the red-ball format our
search seemed neverending.
While
the current
dispensation in
Indian cricket is
Ashwin lives cricket, breathes cricket and sleeps
cricket. When he is not playing cricket, he is
watching other teams going about their business
on television. If there is no international cricket
to be had, he watches Twenty20 leagues around
the world. When the pandemic ensured there
was no cricket to be watched, Ashwin was
talking about cricket. On his hugely popular
YouTube channel and Instagram account,
Ashwin interviewed teammates, opponents,
former players and many cricket experts.
6

He ensured that cricket stayed all around him
in these hard times as well. Being a test regular
spent the limited-overs leg of the Australia tour,
which he was not part of, working hard on and
improving his batting. He thinks a lot about the
game that he loves the most, this thing was quite
evident from his Instagram series ‘Reminisce
with Ash’ was discussing the 2017 Bengaluru Test
against Australia along with Pujara. Ashwin kept
asking Pujara several things about the game, but
to no avail. Pujara hardly recalled anything. He
vividly remembered one incident though: the
diving catch Wriddhiman Saha took to dismiss
Matthew Wade in the 4th innings.
He had to work on his secondary skill as he was
being left out of the side because of Ravindra
Jadeja’s added batting advantage. Like the earnest
competitor that Ashwin is, he felt he needed to
prove he was worthy of a place in the side. He
would ask batting coaches what he needed to do
and would tell them he would do it. . His teammates
and coaches have sometimes in the past
secretly ridiculed him for being too ambitious,
but this was understandable desperation and
ambition. Over the years, Ashwin has bowled
off-breaks, carrom balls, the undercutter, legbreaks,
googlies, and on occasion in the nets
even slow left-arm orthodox. As a younger
man, this was Ashwin’s way of staying one step
ahead of batsmen. When one thing did not
work, he would try something else. Anything
but giving the ball away to another bowler.
With added experience and longevity Ashwin
has matured like a fine wine.
The past decade and a half have seen two finger
spinners- Nathan Lyon and Ravichandran
Ashwin dominate the test cricket arena. For an
off-spinner, the wicket-taking ball is the delivery
that spins and bounces more than the batsmen
would anticipate. Both Ashwin and Lyon
compel the batsmen to make a misjudgment by
generating a stunning loop with their actions.
Deliveries bowled by them dip in front of the
batsmen, forcing them to make an error. This
dip is the result of massive revolutions. Given
their control over pace and length, owing to
their action, they are lethal even in a dead track.
On our recent triumph down under, Ashwin
outbowled Nathan Lyon, something that does
not happen too often. He did this in a Lyonesque
way, relying on overspin more than horizontal
deviation off the pitch. This helped him make
Steve Smith his bunny in the very series
mentioned above. Having bowled like never
before Ashwin was very keen to perform with
the bat. He worked with Vikram Rathour before
the first test and looked fine with the willow.
In that Adelaide Test, there were signs of the
return of Ashwin the batsman when he added 27
with Wriddhiman Saha in the first innings, but
again he was part of that horrible collapse in the
second innings. Ashwin did feel, though, that
he was batting better and that something good
was around the corner. This was followed by a
modest outing with the willow at MCG which in
his terms was a kind of confidence booster given
that he had survived for a decent time at the
crease. Then came the fabled SCG masterclass
that would stay on as a paragon example of grit,
determination, courage and strong-willed self
believe for generations to come. Having gone
through the rigorous engineering curriculum
Ashwin overcame a sore back in what could be
labelled as his finest batting performance to date.
7

Back in India, in more familiar conditions,
with lack of bounce being a real factor, Ashwin
switched gears once more. With the pitches
providing the natural variation — in the second
innings of the first Test and throughout the
second — all he focused on doing was bowling
six balls to a batsman, building pressure and
plotting wickets. Ashwin used the width of the
crease to great effect, landing the ball in very
similar spots from different angles, playing with
the minds of batsmen. And, with England’s top
order not trusting their defence enough, perhaps
spooked by the puffs of dust from the surface
early on, the get-out-of-jail shot was invariably
the sweep. It did not work.
If Ashwin’s career has been marked by an
obsession with the game – and in this case, the
word comes without the baggage of the negative
connotations sometimes attached to it – it has
been kept alive by a constant quest to reinvent
himself and stay relevant. Every cricketer will
tell you that the day you stop learning, the day
you believe you have mastered the game, is
when it comes back to bite you. For Ashwin, the
learning curve has continued to trend upwards,
because he is more acutely aware of himself as a
human being and cricketer now than when he
was beginning.
Already in his mid-30s, Ashwin has started
enjoying like never before something which
is quite evident from his Youtube exploits and
the recently trending dance video with younger
compatriots. He is part of the leadership core of
the Indian cricket team and also understands
the value that his presence in the dressing room
adds to the team environment.
In the lead-up to the second Test, all Ashwin
worried about with the bat in hand was how
to counter Jack Leach, who had got him on the
forward-defensive and also on the book foot. It
is instructive that Ashwin spoke of the whole
batting unit looking to find ways to counter
Leach, not Dom Bess, who also got five wickets
in the Test. Again, Ashwin credited Rathour for
working with him on the sweep, a shot he hasn’t
played much since he was 19. When it was his
turn to bat in the second innings, Ashwin came
out sweeping. Only he used the shot tactically,
hitting hard and flat and into the ground most
times, not out of desperation. When he was
making his way through junior cricket as an
opening batsman, Ashwin liked to sweep.
Dismissed cheaply playing the shot on a couple
of occasions in quick succession, Ashwin was
dropped. He put the shot away, only to bring
it back out when the situation demanded
it. For an ambitious young boy who
grew up playing cricket in
the streets of Chennai,
to score a Test
hundred at his
theatre of dreams
was extra special.
Going by his rich exploits ever since his test
debut he is arguably the best Indian test cricketer
of this generation. Only 6 wickets shy of the 400
wickets mark and some 370 runs away from
achieving 3000 test runs Ashwin in all likelihood
is India’s greatest red ball all-rounder after Kapil
Dev. With a World Cup win under his belt, an
Champions Trophy medal and a couple of IPL
titles, Anna would be raring to go for the elusive
World Test Championship Title at Lord’s this
year!!
8

The Poet’s Sphere
Farewell
- Simone Kahlon
Wars and
Kingdoms
- Nidhi Singh
A mystery that boggles me since time
unknown,
of men fighting battles for a draconian
regime with a crippled throne.
Spurting blood, neighing horses,
clenched swords and raging eyes,
subdue the pain in those million
innocent cries.
As the dead outnumber the living,
the ones left behind forgive and try
forgetting.
Miles of barren land with stains of ego,
rivalry, greed and betrayal,
become sinned grounds with its
unique historical label.
Thus, a kingdom arises with
death as its founding
pillar,
waiting for yet
another war
that will be
bigger.
We came back from where we left,
To the very same place where we first met.
Initially, it was just eye contacts and awkward
smiles,
And now we hugged each other with teary
eyes,
Wondering how time actually fifties.
When we first came here we explored every
new place.
Now we tiptoed past them with our own
stories to embrace,
Thought to ourselves it was Indeed a crazy
phase.
With our every joyous and cheery meet
And pressurizing our friends to give us a
treat.
The burden of engineering assignments used
to gradually deplete.
Now we all walk out with placements in our
hands to flaunt,
but deep down reliving our college days is all
we want.
9

Rite Bite: max Nutrition
Thapar MUN Society is pleased to announce
Ritebite Max Nutrition as its Energy Partner for
Thapar MUN 2021.
Ritebite Max Nutrition offers healthy, handy and
delicious protein power snacks that fuel you
with sustained energy. With no added
preservatives or artificial substances,
they are specially customised
to meet your lifestyle needs and
palate.
10

Contact Us:
Yash Tyagi: 6283029150
Yugum Chaudhary: 9818097670
munsociety@thapar.edu
@thaparmunsociety
@thaparmunsociety
@thapar-mun-society
@thaparMUN
https://thaparmunsociety.in/
IP Head:
Nirmiti Mittal
Managing Editor:
Simran Kaur
Editor-in-Chief:
Rhea Gadoo
USG IP:
Suvrat Arora
Designed By:
Muskaan Walia