Skip Nav | Home | Mobile | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Security | Support Us

World

San Francisco protest demands freedom for Dr. Binayak Sen

Sharat G. Lin | 15.05.2008 00:51 | Repression | World

On the first anniversary of the incarceration of Indian human rights and public health activist, Dr. Binayak Sen, people gathered in front of the Consulate General of India in San Francisco to protest his continued imprisonment on fabricated charges. They presented a petition demanding, "Free Dr. Binayak Sen," to the Indian Consul General.

Protest in front of the Consulate General of India in San Francisco
Protest in front of the Consulate General of India in San Francisco

Signing petition to free Dr. Binayak Sen
Signing petition to free Dr. Binayak Sen

Dr. Binayak Sen (eighth from left) with CMSS and author
Dr. Binayak Sen (eighth from left) with CMSS and author


Dr. Binayak Sen could have had a promising career as a paediatrician in any modern hospital in the new "rising" India. After all he was a gold medallist from the prestigious Christian Medical College (CMC) in Vellore. But as he walked the slums of Vellore, he realized that there was more to medicine than a comfortable career. Instead, he went on to study social medicine at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi, and ended up moving to southern Chhattisgarh in 1981.

There, in the iron ore and dolomite mines surrounding the Bhilai Steel Plant, the pioneering trade union leader, Shankar Guha Niyogi, was building not only a labour union, Chhattisgarh Mines Shramik Sangh (CMSS), but also a social movement among 30,000 mostly-Adivasi mine workers (Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha). With the Bhilai Steel Plant refusing to provide health care to mine workers, Niyogi recognized that it was left to the union to fill the need and expand its base of support. Binayak Sen joined him, along with Dr. Ashish Kundu and Dr. Saibal Jana, in a makeshift clinic operating in a shed carved out of the side of the union office in Dalli Rajhara in Durg District.

I first met them in the spring of 1983, only to find them working with the barest of medical equipment and supplies. The queues and days were long, but the doctors were unquestionably dedicated to serving the poor and to advancing the trade union and social movements of CMSS and CMM. Shaheed Hospital was not yet built, for its foundation was just being laid, but there was a tremendous sense of hopeful expectation in the air among miners and doctors alike.

But even in those days, there was also a climate of fear. Four mine workers had been shot earlier by police during a strike action at the railway junction in nearby Rajnandgaon. Central Bureau of Intelligence (CBI) agents periodically dropped in to find out who was coming and going. Niyogi himself lived with his wife, Asha, and three children in an unmarked house buried deep in the workers' housing colony in Dalli Rajhara. The house he lived in was a strictly-kept secret to outsiders because there had been many death threats, and Niyogi feared that an assassin would one day attack him in his sleep. Tragically, on 28 September 1991 that is exactly what happened.

On 14 May 2007, it was Dr. Binayak Sen's turn to disappear. Police arrested him, charging him with sedition, criminal conspiracy, making war against the country, and knowingly conveying the "proceeds of terrorism." He was charged under draconian state and central laws -- the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act (CSPSA) of 2006 and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) of 1967. Since then three courts have denied him bail, including the Supreme Court on 10 December 2007. Additional Solicitor General of India, Gopal Subramaniam, alleged that Dr. Sen was a key figure in a Naxalite "network of terrorism."

The reality was that Dr. Sen was providing medical care to an elderly Naxalite leader, Narayan Sanyal, in Raipur Jail. Under constant supervision of jail authorities, there was no possibility that Sen could have engaged in any "terrorist" activities with Sanyal. Sen became involved when Sanyal's family contacted Sen, as state general secretary of the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) in Chhattisgarh, asking for legal and medical help for Sanyal.

The charges against Binayak Sen were a pretext for silencing him because of his and PUCL's investigations revealing rampant human rights violations and atrocities by police and government-supported vigilantes. Salwa Judum is a vigilante movement sponsored and armed by the government in southern Chhattisgarh since June 2005. It was created in an attempt to counter the Maoist insurgency that has taken over the entire Bastar-Dantewada region because of either the government's utter neglect of social services or callous land-grabs by private corporations. The militarization of the region and the presence of the Salwa Judum have triggered a near civil war that has cleansed more than 600 villages, displacing more than one lakh (100,000) people from their homes.

On 25 October 2004, CMC awarded Binayak Sen its pretigious Paul Harrison Award, saying, "Dr Binayak Sen has carried his dedication to truth and service to the very frontline of the battle. He has broken the mould, redefined the possible role of the doctor in a broken and unjust society, holding the cause much more precious than personal safety. CMC is proud to be associated with Binayak Sen." And on 21 April 2008, Binayak Sen was awarded in absentia one of the highest international honours in health and human rights, the Jonathan Mann Award.

Worldwide coordinated protest actions marked one full year of imprisonment for Dr. Binayak Sen on fabricated charges under India's notorious "Black Laws." The demonstration by many concerned organizations and individuals, including Friends of South Asia (FOSA), Association for India's Development (AID), Amnesty International, ANSWER Coalition, and the San Jose Peace and Justice Centre, was held on 13 May 2008 in front of the Consulate General of India in San Francisco. Participants signed a petition demanding Binayak Sen's release, and presented it to Consul General B. S. Prakash. It was but one of many protests held at Indian embassies and consulates and around the world.

See:  http://www.aidboston.org/FreeBinayakSen/appeal.htm

Sharat G. Lin
- Homepage: http://www.sanjosepeace.org

Publish

Publish your news

Do you need help with publishing?

/regional publish include --> /regional search include -->

World Topics

Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Server Appeal Radio Page Video Page Indymedia Cinema Offline Newsheet

secure Encrypted Page

You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.

If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

IMCs


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech