Archive for December, 2010
Video: Angry New Year
Full text: The Binayak Sen Judgement (English Translation)
(Given below is the full text of the judgement of Raipur Sessions Court sentencing Dr Binayak Sen for life. It is a translation from the Hindi. The translation has been done by the Free Binayak Sen campaign. You can download here (.pdf) the Hindi original. also read the Critique of the Judgement )
CHENNAI POLICE TERMS DEMOCRATIC PROTEST UNLAWFUL
PRESS NOTE
Chennai, 30th December 2010: While the whole nation rises in outrage against the unjust conviction and life imprisonment of renowned physician and human rights activist Dr Binayak Sen, Chennai Police Commissioner’s office deems such democratic protests “unlawful”. In an order dated 28th December 2010, the Commissioner’s office denied police permission to Campaign for Justice and Peace-Tamil Nadu to organise a public protest near Memorial Hall on 31st December.
Calling the police action a serious breach of constitutional right to free speech, lawyers, doctors, writers, students, parliamentarian, and activists staged a silent protest by tying black ribbons around their mouth. The protest also symbolised people’s opposition to city’s curb on right to assembly and non violent protests by imposition of section 144 of Indian Penal Code by the city police throughout the year.
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Conviction of, and Life Sentence to Dr. Binayak Sen is Injustice to the Whistle Blowers! : National Council of Churches
The National Council of Churches in India, on the Christmas day condemns the unjust attitude of the Chhattisgarh Government’s politically motivated and vindictive action against Dr. Binayak Sen’s conviction and sentence of life imprisonment on alleged charges of sedition and conspiracy under the Chhattisgarh Special Public Safety Act, 2005, and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, 2004.
NCCI strongly condemns such unlawful activities of the states, in shutting up the whistle blowers’ voices against the structural injustices on the communities of peoples by misusing the state and legislative machineries.
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Shiv Viswanathan’s Letter to the PM
This open letter by SHIV VISWANATHAN, Eminent Social Scientist, has been circulated by Communalism Combat:
Dear Professor Manmohan Singh,
I hope you don’t mind the temerity of this letter. It is written as one scholar to another, one citizen to another. I know you are a PM and people like me may not be influential. However some things must be said and said clearly.
I was against to find that Doctor Binayak Sen has been given a life term for sedition. Let me put it simply. I think it is an appalling act of injustice and a betrayal of an ethical vision.
The point I wish to make is simple. We do not have to agree with Binayak Sen, anymore than we have to agree with Mahaswta Devi or Arundhati Roy or Baba Amte. But these have been voices of conscience. These are people who have care and healed, given a voice to the voiceless. They represent the essential goodness of our society. They are Indians and outstanding Indians and no nation state can negate that. I admit that such people are not easy people. They irritate, they agonize over things we take for granted or ignore. They take the ethical to the very core of our lives. Let us be clear. It is not Sen’s ideology that threatens us. It is his ethics, his sense of goodness. We have arrested him because we have arrested that very sense of justice in ourselves.
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What They Said: Rooting for Binayak Sen: WSJ
By Krishna Pokharel
India Real Time
Wall Street Journal
The Chhattisgarh court verdict that convicted Binayak Sen of sedition and sentenced him to life in prison has largely generated support and sympathy for the doctor who has spent most of his life working among tribal Indians in conflict-afflicted central India. Only a few voices said they agreed with the verdict. India Real Time presents a sample of what people said about the decision:
Dr. Sen was convicted for passing on notes from a Maoist prisoner he was treating, which the doctor has denied doing. The state in which he was convicted is at the heart of a violent Maoist rebellion against the Indian government. The rebels say they are fighting on behalf of poor tribals who stand to lose as industry tries to extract the mineral riches of central India.
Journalist M.J. Akbar, editor of the weekly magazine India Today, wrote on his personal blog on Saturday: “India has become a strange democracy where Binayak Sen gets life in jail and dacoits get a life in luxury.”
The “dacoits” in that sentence is a reference to politicians being investigated in connection with a spate of corruption scandals this year.
“Binayak made a fundamental, mortal mistake. He was on the side of the poor. That is a non-negotiable error in our oligarchic democracy,” Mr. Akbar continued, adding a personal touch. “Sen, who was senior to me in school, was and remains the gentlest of people, distinguished only by a fierce commitment to his cause of choice. I do not agree with his political views or inclinations; nor does the political system. But it is only in a dictatorship that disagreement is sufficient reason for incarceration.”
Bangalore Protest Report
Quick Update
- We had about 400-500 people at the town hall at the peak of the meeting.
- The participation was diverse – many many groups came in a good numbers. Strong show of solidarity! {Everybody mobilised well}
- Highlighting quotes from the speakers:
- Justice Saldanha says, “ It is not a judgment but an atrocity of the worst order.”
- Veerabhadra Chennamalla Swamiji, from Nedumamudi Mutt, says, “Its an undemocratic judgment, and it is an assault on justice”.
- From Popular Front of India, Usman Baig says, “Judiciary is also becoming fascist like the executive and legislature.”
- Advocate Balan, from AITUC, says, “This is judicial terrorism”
- U.R Ananthmurthy says, “Dr. Binayak Sen represents me too”
- Agni Sridhar, and other speakers condemned the turn of events and called it an assault on democracy, pressing for the release of Dr. Binayak Sen.
- There was a good media presence!
What does Court say in Dr Binayak Sen’s case
We have been listening and reading about Dr Sen’s court decision since the day it has been pronounced. But since the original decision is in Hindi and is 92 pages long, hence many would be possibly have got the opportunity to read and understand it. I hope, u appreciate the fact that the judgement can be fully appreciated only when one has gone through it in its totality.
Here is my attempt at presenting the basic and more important facts of the Court judgement in the much-discussed Dr Binayak Sen case (translating the Hindi version to the best of my abilities)., without giving any cooments on my behalf. This being a highly sensitive matter, I extend my apologies for any unintended error or misrepresentation.
Amitabh Thakur
IPS,
Currently at IIM Lucknow
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why is india afraid of binayak sen ?
Nandini Krishnan
Sify News
A child molester is sentenced to a year and a half in jail twenty years after his victim killed herself, and gets out on bail within four months.
A convicted terrorist is fed biriyani, while the hangman finishes up his backlog.
A man, who is responsible for the continuing suffering of millions of victims 26 years after a gas tragedy, is allowed to lead a cosy life in the United States of America.
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Solidarity Youth Movement condemns Binayak Sen’s conviction
The verdict charging Dr Sen of sedition has not taken into consideration the law points on which the Supreme Court had earlier granted him bail and it is utterly condemnable, said Solidarity state secretary T Muhammed Velom. The court verdict has come on the basis of only witnesses’ testimonies and a fake letter. The government portrays as traitors those who raise their voice for the human rights of the victims of state terror, and the judiciary is not submitting itself to this trick. In the wake of the several news reports about corruption and illicit relations in the courts of Kolkata and Karnataka, the verdict shows that the Raipur court also has been influenced by the bad trend, he added.
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. 
