(For Amnesty International)Few legal cases in our country have caused this much of an international outrage as has the arrest and subsequent sentence given to Binayak Sen, one of India’s leading human rights activists. On 24 December 2010, Dr. Binayak Sen, a pioneering medical doctor, was sentenced to life imprisonment after an unfair trial. His fault - public criticism of the Chhattisgarh police and the government for killing local adivasis and not armed Maoists, as claimed by the Police.
Dr. Binayak Sen has lived in Chhattisgarh since 1991 and has been involved in running rural community health projects. He also set up a hospital funded and run by mineworkers and works at his rural health clinic. All was well as long as he was confined to his work among the rural folk. But Dr. Sen was a vocal critic of the Salwa Judum, the militia group supported by the Chhattisgarh government, which was involved in widespread human rights violations against the members of the local community. This has infuriated the government and it has used politically motivated charges against him to put him behind the bars. The lower courts repeatedly rejected bail to Dr. Sen until May 2009, when the Supreme Court finally ordered his release. However again in 24 December 2010 Dr. Sen was sentenced to life imprisonment after being convicted of sedition and conspiracy against the state after an unfair trial.
One should read the story of Dr. Binayak Sen’s unfair trial and sentence together with the attack on Salman Taseer and his subsequent death in Pakistan. Both are results of growing intolerance in our society; if the former is state’s intolerance towards freedom of speech and expression, the latter is an example of religious intolerance. His imprisonment is stopping Dr. Sen from continuing with his human rights activism and with his health work in the rural area. The severe sentence of life imprisonment handed down to Binayak Sen will set a dangerous precedence in India of state authorities seeking harsh sentences against outspoken human rights defenders across the country. If that becomes the order of the day there is a greater threat of India’s democracy falling into dire straits and India becoming a failed state.
Amnesty International has reopened his case file and is campaigning for his release as it believes that Binayak Sen is a prisoner of conscience. Rights organisations, intellectuals and around 2,000 doctors from all around the world have signed petitions demanding Dr. Sen’s release. The Home Minister of India Mr. P. Chidambaram has said that he will discuss the issue with the Chhattisgarh authorities, but so far no concrete steps have been taken. It is quite imperative to send an urgent appeal to the Indian authorities to make sure that all charges against him are dropped and he is released immediately. Please use the below mentioned link to send your appeal.
1 comment:
Thanks for the post Aravind.
Post a Comment