Yesterday
Iftiqar Gilani,
Today Binayak Sen
By Subhash Gatade
26 July, 2007
Countercurrents.org
Does
anybody remember the Delhi bureau chief of Kashmir Times, Mr Iftiqar
Gilani who was hounded by the BJP government on fraudulent charges under
the draconian Official Secrets Act supposedly for possessing some ‘secret’
documents. Interestingly when it was revealed that all the ‘secret’
documents purported to be in possession of Mr Gilani were easily available
online, then the law and order people had no other alternative than
to release him.
The world very well knows
that why Mr Gilani was treated in such a humiliating manner. The only
‘crime’ the accredited journalist had committed was that
he happened to be son in law of a famous Kashmiri leader.
Today the same fate awaits
Dr Binayak Sen - a paediatrician by training and profession and a human
rights activist by choice. This receipient of the famous Paul Harrison
award for work in community health has received a new identity. - A
menace to public safety - The Chattisgarh police whose own record of
human rights violations would shame even the KPS Gills, has used the
provisions of the draconian Chhatisgarh Special Public Safety Act and
Unlawful Activities Prevention Act ( a substitute for POTA ) to detain
Dr Binayak Sen in the wee hours of 14 th May. And the recent high court
order has even refused him a bail.
It has been more than twenty
five years that Dr Binayak Sen left his job at the Jawaharlal Nehru
University, Delhi to dedicate himself to serve the poor and the downtrodden
in Chhatisgarh. It was the time when a new workers- peasants movement
was taking shape in Chattisgarh ( which was then part of Madhya Pradesh)
under the leadership of the legendary leader Shankar Guha Niyogi. The
martyrdom of more than eleven workers in Dalli-Rajhara in the immediate
aftermath of the assumption of power by the Janata Party government
was a news all over the country. Binayak Sen never looked back and continued
working for the people despite many highs-lows of the movement. He played
an important part in the formation of Shaheed Hospital at Dalli-Rajhara,
a hospital run by the workers for the other downtrodden sections of
society.
To further his concern for
the really needy Dr Binayak donned many roles. He worked on community
health projects, ran a clinic, also ran a organic farm near Raipur and
was also adviser to the Chhatisgarh government for its community health
project called 'Mitanin'. He found himself drawn into the fledgling
human rights movement in the state when violations of human rights saw
a quantum jump. But for his intervention ( of course alongwith other
members of the civil liberty movement) the rest of the world would have
never known the killing of twelve innocent tribals at Santoshpur by
the security forces of the state supposedly to curb the Naxalite 'menace'.
(31st March 2007) He was instrumental in forming an all India fact finding
committee of civil liberty organisations to look into 'Salwa Judum'
a campaign of arming tribals started by the government and using them
as mercenaries. The report brought out by these organisations was an
eye-opener. It showed how the state government has even allocated budget
for this campaign which it calls a 'spontaneous response of the tribals
towards the Naxalite 'menace'.
It was only last year that
Dr Binayak Sen, - alongwith other civil liberty organisations and activists
- had taken the initiative to organise a Convention in Raipur. The aim
of the convention was to highlight the precarious human rights situation
in the state, but an important item on their agenda was to focus the
attention about a sinister move by the Chhatisgarh government to silence
every dissenting voice. In fact Raman Singh led government had already
made decisive moves in the direction of enacting a new law 'Chhatisgarh
Special Public Security Act' (2006) which had several provisions similar
to the (now lapsed) draconian POTA.
It was rigthly pointed out
that the proposed act CSPSA not only included violation of the principle
of certainty in criminal law (including vague definition of membership
and support to terrorist organisations) but also absence of pre-trial
safeguards (including insufficient safeguards on arrest, the risk of
torture, obstacles to confidential communications with counsel). An
important provision which rather made it worse than POTA was the 'virtual
impossibility of obtaining bail as there is no provision for remedy
of appeal or review of detention.'
Little did any of the organisers
or the participants to the convention had the premonition that Dr Binayak
Sen himself would be charged under the act, detained for months together
by denying bail on flimsy grounds.
Despite campaign by democratic
rights activists which were joined in by voices of medical fraternity
from the world over, the powers that be seem to be least concerned about
his detention. For the powers that be it is not a matter of concern
that world renowned intellectuals like Noam Chomsky, Romila Thapar and
several others have expressed their 'opposition' to this unwarranted
detention of Dr Sen. For them it is not a big thing that 1500 doctors
spread in different parts of the world who have been acquainted with
the work of their fellow doctor have appealed to the Chhatisgarh government
that he be released immediately and all false charges against him be
dropped forthwith.
It should be added that 'Medico
Friend Circle'(MFC) - a thirty year old organisation of doctors who
are working to make health services more accessible to the poor and
who have consistently opposed the corporate control over people's health,
recently held a press conference in Raipur to oppose Dr Sen's detention.
In fact they showed the media a thirty minute CD based on the work of
Dr Sen, who is closely associated with MFC's work since his youth. In
fact more than thirty well-known medical professionals spread in different
parts of the country made it a point to be present in the Press meet
and declare their solidarity with their comrade.
But leave dropping charges
or releasing him, the courts are is not ready to grant him bail.Dr Sen
has been charged with 'a prima facie case that the applicant was involved
with some banned organisation' .The high court did not deem it necessary
to grant interim relief despite knowing the fact that ' the said meeting
between leader of a Maoist organisation and Dr Sen took place in the
jail premises themselves' in the 'presence of jail officials' and the
letters which the police claimed to have seized from Mr Sen's house
were sent from the jail themselves with due stamp of the jail officials.
The Chhattisgarh PUCL has
termed this order of the Chhattisgarh High Court as “unfortunate”
as the Court has not appreciated all the material facts and evidence
of the case as presented by the legal counsel for Dr. Binayak Sen during
the arguments. It has also decided to move the Supreme Court so that
the highest courts of the country can decide on the merit of the case.
It has also resolved 'to take stock of the alarming situation in Chhattisgarh
with regard to ruthless use of repressive laws and anti-democratic actions
of the State Government and, in turn, formulate future strategy and
action plan to defend democracy and restore the rule of law.'
These days media is agog
with news of another innocent doctor called Dr Haneef who has been apprehended
by the Australian police. It is for everyone to see to what extent the
Australian police went in proving that he is a 'terrorist'. It is a
mark of the vibrancy of the Australian civil society that people there
have stood up in Dr. Haneef's defence. The consistent campaign by the
civil liberty organisations with due support from the media has helped
expose Australian government's highhandedness in l'affaire Haneef. It
is a matter of time that Dr Haneef would be released.
One just wishes that much
like their Australian counterpart, the civil society in this part of
the globe also wakes up to the innocence of Dr Binayak Sen and tell
the powers that be that 'We want him out' !
If the Australians can fight
for the human rights of an Indian, should the Indians maintain a conspiracy
of silence when one of their own is being brutalised by the state.
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