SHUT UP THE VOICES OF DISSENT
The Telegraph
OPED
By detaining Binayak Sen for months, is the State sending out an ominous signal to those who work for human rights? asks Rajashri Dasgupta
t is a ploy undertaken by the State, time and again, to browbeat dissent and distract attention from its own misdeeds. Since May 14 last year, Binayak Sen, a pediatrician who has quietly dedicated his life to the service of some of India’s most impoverished communities, especially indigenous tribes and mine-workers, has been languishing in Raipur Central Jail in Chattisgarh under trumped-up charges. For his devoting more than three decades of selfless service to the rural poor, the State has charged the 58-year-old doctor with sedition and conspiracy to wage war, for being a “dangerous Naxalite” and for helping the Maoist movement — charges that could fetch him life imprisonment.
Although the State seems to find Binayak Sen so dangerous as to keep him in solitary confinement, denying him bail and basic amenities, the rest of the world does not. Ironically, even a year ago, only a few knew about his exceptional work, but in trying to stifle his spirit, the State has made him famous, and turned him into a hero. After his imprisonment, Sen has won the 2008 Jonathan Mann Award for Global Health and Human Rights, becoming the first South Asian to receive this prestigious award. The appeal by 22 Nobel laureates to the prime minister to allow Sen to travel to Washington to collect the award on May 29 left the State unmoved.
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Sign the petition on Abuse of State Power Against Indian Journalists
Sign the petition
To: President and Prime Minister of India
We condemn the action of the Gujarat police in foisting a case of sedition on The Times of India, the editor of its Ahmedabad edition and other staffers for criticizing the choice of O P Mathur as the police commissioner of Ahmedabad.
The action of the police is not only plainly vindictive and a threat to media freedoms but a perverse misuse of laws supposedly meant to protect national security and the lives of citizens. As the Editors Guild of India has rightly pointed out sedition is a charge which was slapped on the Indian media by the colonial rulers during the freedom struggle and its abuse against the media today negates the freedom granted to the citizens by the Constitution.
We also note with grave concern that elsewhere in the country too there are attempts by those in power to use anti-terror or anti-sedition laws to muzzle dissenting voices of artists, journalists, academics and human rights defenders who are telling unpalatable truths.
Some of the clear examples of this alarming trend, which threatens Indian democracy, are the arrests of human rights activists Dr Binayak Sen in Chhattisgarh and Lachit Bordloi in Assam, journalists Prashant Rahi in Uttarakhand, Praful Jha in Chattisgarh and P. Govind Kutty in Kerala. The most recent case of such abuse of state power is the arrest of independent filmmaker and journalist Ajay TG under the notorious Chhattisgarh State Public Security Act on 5 May 2008.
We demand the unconditional withdrawal of charges against all these activists and journalists and the setting up of an independent commission to look into the misuse of anti-terror laws by state authorities. We further demand the scrapping of all legislation that violates the fundamental freedoms enshrined in the Indian Constitution.
Sincerely,
The Undersigned
Sign the petition
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Fight For Rights, Face State Fury: Tehelka Report
CURRENT AFFAIRS
the rights debate
First, Binayak Sen. Now, filmmaker-activist Ajay TG is arrested under draconian laws for opposing the Salva Judum
SHOBHITA NAITHANI
New Delhi
IT’S APRIL 2004. Human rights activist and general secretary of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) Chhattisgarh unit Dr Binayak Sen, sociology professor Nandini Sundar, freelance journalist and filmmaker Ajay Thachhappully Gangadharan (TG) and a local man are in Bastar, Chhattisgarh’s tribal district. They are observing how the Lok Sabha elections are being conducted, the impact of the Maoist ban and the overall situation. There is a visible military presence; helicopters are doing the rounds and personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) are patrolling. As the group of four stop to film an empty polling booth, young Maoists surround them. The group is asked to wait till the headman gives them the go-ahead to film. The headman doesn’t turn up; the Maoists ask them to leave the camera behind. In a 2006 article in the newspaper, DNA, Sundar writes: “A month or so later, the filmmaker got his camera back with an offer of money in case it was spoilt and a letter of apology from a Maoist spokesperson.”
Four years later. On May 6, 2008, Ajay TG’s wife Shobha puts a set of clothes, soap, toothpaste, comb and a packet of biscuits into her bag with her 20-month-old son Aman by her side. At about 10.30am, the 32-year-old speeds off with her brother-in-law on his bike to meet her husband lodged in Kendriya Jail six km away from her house in Durg, on the outskirts of Raipur. In the three years since it came into force, Ajay is the 43rd person to be arrested under the draconian Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act (CSPSA), 2005. Read more
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International coalition demands repeal of repressive laws on one-year anniversary of Dr. Binayak Sen’s unjust incarceration
Association for India’s Development
Friends of South Asia
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 15, 2008
Send a FREE FAX NOW to PM/CM: http://petitions.aidindia.org/binayaksen/index.php
Protest Videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxSoqWab0vE
Pictures : http://gallery.aidindia.org/gallery/gallery2/v/chhattisgarh_001/Binayak+Sen+Solidarity/
San Francisco, CA: Hundreds of Activists from a broad coalition of 50 international human rights groups that includes Amnesty International, National Lawyers’ Guild and SANSAD (South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy), Canada, took to the streets on two Global days of Action, May 13 & 14, to protest the continued incarceration of human rights crusader, Dr. Binayak Sen. Simultaneous protests were held outside the Indian consulates in London, New York, Washington D.C., San Francisco and Vancouver, while activists in Paris, Stockholm, Boston, Pittsburgh, Houston and many other cities organized vigils, talks, and film screenings to raise awareness about the ongoing persecution of human rights activists. Over 4000 signatures from individuals around the world have been collected on petitions asking for the release of Dr. Sen. Internationally acclaimed intellectuals, including Noam Chomsky, Arundhati Roy, George Galloway, and Mahashweta Devi have all joined in urging the Indian government to free Binayak Sen and stop the harassment of human rights activists. Further, in an unprecedented move, twenty-two Nobel Prize winning scientists and economists have also appealed to the Indian government to release Dr Binayak Sen enabling him to go and receive the 2008 Jonathan Mann Award for Health and Human Rights in Washington later this month. All these documents were submitted to Indian authorities along with hundreds of faxes by individuals demanding the release of Dr.Sen*.
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RIGHTS-INDIA: Top Activist’s Detention Blot on Democracy
By Praful Bidwai
IPS NEWS
NEW DELHI, May 15 (IPS) - Protests are mounting all over the world against the year-long detention of Dr. Binayak Sen, a distinguished Indian human rights and health activist, under draconian laws in the central state of Chhattisgarh.
Sen, national vice president and Chhattisgarh general secretary of the well-known People’s Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL), was arrested under allegations of helping left-wing extremists, known in this country as Naxalites.
The charges shocked human rights organisations and citizens’ groups, which on independent investigation, have found them totally fictitious. They believe that the Chhattisgarh government filed them to harass Sen and set a horribly negative example for all civil liberties activists and intimidate them.
Sen is probably India’s first human rights defender to have faced such prolonged detention.
Sen’s detention raises serious questions about the content and quality of democracy in India, and the state’s failure to respect liberties and fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution. It also points to links between human rights violations and the government’s social and economic policies.
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Gallery
From freebinayaksen.org- Updates from Google News
- Dr Binayak Sen: An unfortunate achiever - Merinews
- Jailed human-rights activist works for peace - Ode Magazine
- Q&A: 'Rights activism uses space within the Constitution' - Times of India
- DIFFERENT KINDS OF SILENCE - Calcutta Telegraph
- Vote War 2008: Chhattisgarh - Tehelka
- National Convention on Countering Fascist Forces: Defending the ... - NewsBlaze (press release)
- Reports From Indian Media
- Different kinds of silence - Telegraph: Opinion
- Whither democracy? - Oheraldo
- Q&A: 'Rights activism uses space within the Constitution' - TOI: Editorial
- The Shootin' Sheriffs - Outlook
- Videos - Rediff: Top Stories (India)
- India must be reclaimed - Hindustan Times: Views
- A law and its victim - Frontline
- An appeal for peace in South Bastar - Hindu: Opinion
- NGOs demand severe action against attackers - The Navhind Times