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India’s intellectuals snubbed in Dr
Sen case
WSN Bureau
 RAIPUR:
Within 10 days of India's top intellectuals, academicians, lawyers
and retired bureaucrats issuing a strong demand for the release of
activist and human rights advocate Dr Binayak Sen, charges were
framed under the Indian Penal Code and other acts at the February 2
hearing of the fast track court at
Raipur.
Dr Sen is the national vice-president of the People’s Union of Civil
Liberties (PUCL). He has now been accused of providing logistical
support to the banned CPI (Maoist).
Dr Sen has been
languishing in jail since his arrest in May 2007. He has now been
booked under Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) 121A (conspiracy to
commit offences punishable under Section 121 i.e. war against state)
and 124-A (sedition) of the IPC as well as the relevant provisions
of the Unlawful Activi ties Act, 2004 besides under Chhattisgarh
Public Safety Act.
 Activists had
visited Chhattisgarh from 18–22 January 2008 to press for Dr Sen's
case adn had met the Governor and state police chief, besides
meeting Dr Sen himself in the central prison at
Raipur. Some
members of the group also visited areas in the districts of Bastar,
Dantewada and Bijapur.
Among the
activists who formed part of the delegation were Amit Bhaduri,
Professor JNU, social activist Medha Patkar, Magsaysay Awardees
Sandeep Pandey and Arvind Kejriwal, retired DU professor Uma
Chakravarty (who has also done commendable work on 1984 pogroms),
former Ambassador Madhu Bhaduri, DU’s Nivedita Menon, Panjab
University’s Gopal Iyer and media activist Manish Sisodia.
The team
collectively issued a statement saying: "The charges filed against
Dr Sen under the IPC, CrPC and the Chhattisgarh Public Safety Act (CPSA)
are unwarranted and unconstitutional. The CPSA enables the
government to interpret the rendering of simple humanitarian acts as
unlawful. The Act defines “unlawful activity” so broadly that every
act of vigilant citizenship can be construed as unlawful and
anti-national. Thus it is clear that Dr Sen is being targeted in his
capacity as General Secretary of People’s
Union for Civil
Liberties, Chhattishgarh. The reports produced by the PUCL have
highlighted the anti-constitutional violence legitimized by the
state through the Salwa Judum campaign."
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 Arundhati
Roy, Booker prize-winning writer and social activist: "What has
happened to him is a very dangerous signal for all of us as we
are beginning to see the results of a society that is becoming a
police society, where every problem is approached as a military
problem. This is happening in Northeast where the public
security act and the armed forces special powers act are
enforced." |
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Campaign to free
Dr Sen has caught up in
India though it
makes little news in Punjab or among the Punjabi Diaspora. This is
in pattern with the functioning of many humna rights bodies which
fail to come to each other's aid because of lack of understanding,
man power, resources and the machinations of the Indian state.
Dr Sen's arrest
and the latest developments make it clear that the government is
eliminating the possibility of a strong civil society that can act
like a middle ground between Naxalites and the government. Dr Sen
represents a voice that is critical of the anti-people policies of
the government. Incidentally, the Indian Social Science Congress at
its annual convention held in Mumbai in December 2007, had
felicitated Dr Sen with a citation honouring him as a committed
Gandhian.
6 February 2008
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