Two years in jail- As a nation, we must feel ashamed
Editorial
The Statesman
A physician named Binayak Sen has been in custody in Chattisgarh for two years. He was arrested on 14 May 2007 and charged with offences under the Chattisgarh Special Public Security Act, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the Indian Penal Code. He is in the eyes of the government of Chattisgarh a terrorist. The main charge against him is of having passed on a letter from one detained Maoist leader to another detained Maoist leader. He denies this charge, and those supporting his cause ~ the list includes an impressive array of people around the country and overseas ~ say the primary reason for his incarceration is his role as general secretary of the state unit of the Peoples’ Union for Civil Liberties. This was a role in which he had exposed the activities of a state-sponsored vigilante group called the Salwa Judum, which was formed to counter Maoists using violent means. Those are the facts. Dr Sen’s trial has commenced. But why must Dr Sen remain in jail while he faces these charges? No one denies that he is an eminent physician, or that he had made signal contributions to healthcare in an oft-neglected tribal and Adivasi belt of the country. No one denies that he upheld the Hippocratic oath with greater dedication than say the doctor who heads the government of neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. Yet, he has spent more time in a real prison than Lalu Prasad, accused in several cases relating to the multi-crore rupee fodder scam and for possessing assets disproportionate to known sources of income. The railway minister was remanded to custody on several occasions for crimes against the people he ruled, but spent most of his time in the Bihar Military Police guest-house, infinitely more salubrious than Raipur jail.
Dr Sen does not figure in the manifesto of frontline political parties. He does not even figure on the agenda of a majority of India’s so-called intellectuals. Few people really care if he spends the rest of his life in prison. Are we indifferent? Do we lack a conscience? Or are we scared of being dubbed Maoist sympathisers if we show support to the beleaguered doctor? Today it is in Chattisgarh; tomorrow it could be in Delhi or West Bengal. Surely, we ought to realise it is in our interest, as citizens of a supposedly liberal state to express a sense of outrage at Dr Sen’s plight; this could just as easily happen to us. For being so callous about liberty, it is we who ought to be in jail.
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Binayaksen.net is one of many efforts by well wishers and supporters of Dr Binayak Sen to bring the injustice being done to him by the government of Chhattisgarh to the attention of people around the world. 
