[Reader-list] Statement of Protest at the Incarceration of Dr.Binayak Sen and Ajay TG

[prakash ray]

*Statement of Protest at the Incarceration of Dr.Binayak Sen and Ajay TG
*
We the undersigned demand the immediate release of Dr Binayak Sen who is
detained by the Chhatisgarh government under the Chhatisgarh Special
Security Act and Criminal Amendment Act. These draconian acts were used
against Dr Sen who was becoming an eyesore to the Chhatisgarh government for
his campaign against violation of democratic rights, especially, due to the
state sponsored fascist terror campaign called Salwa Judum- a diabolic ploy
of the state government to pit impoverished Adivasis against Adivasis.

We also demand that all the cases against him be immediately dropped as they
are instituted to harass him and his family. The inordinate delay in even
framing charges against him is a part of this harassment. His solitary
confinement is not only illegal but an attempt to break his will. All this
has affected his health adversely and amounts to torture.

It is important to note that Dr Binayak Sen is an eminent pediatrician of
the country. In this ruthless neo-liberal era where health care and other
basic services are increasingly being commodified, Dr Sen gave up all the
comforts and the career drive of a medical specialist in a metropolis and
chose to work with the downtrodden workers and peasants in Chhatisgarh, one
of the poorest states of India.

He dedicated himself to the emancipation of the poor people and became a
member of the Chhatisgarh Mukti Morcha to fight for the rights of the
workers in mining sector and other unorganized sectors. He was one of the
driving forces behind Shaheed Hospital which provided low cost medical care
to workers and which was managed by the workers themselves.

Under the predatory policies of Structural Adjustment being implemented in
India under pressure from the Bretton Wood Institutions, millions of working
people are denied proper health care and nutrition. Being critical of the
health policies of the government, Dr Binayak Sen initiated innovative
community health care projects for the toiling people, especially women,
Dalits, Adivasis, workers and peasants.

Dr Sen was arrested for his activities as a PUCL activist for exposing the
atrocities committed on Adivasis in the name of Salwa Judum which has
displaced more then one lakh Adivasis in the Baster region. It is important
to note, Salwa Judum's real agenda is to displace the Adivasis from Baster
and hand over their mineral rich lands to big industrial groups and
international corporate houses.

The governments at the Centre and the State have been totally non-responsive
to the repeated protests and pleas of national and international civil and
democratic rights groups (also, Nobel Prize winners). This is an indication
of the real agenda of these governments that they would not tolerate any
legitimate protest against their neo-liberal pro-corporate agenda. The
intolerance towards legitimate protest against the variety of undemocratic
acts by the ruling elite of the country is visible across the country.

Dr Binayak Sen has become a symbol of democratic rights and freedom of
expression in the country. Like Nelson Mandela, he is a beacon of hope for
the struggling people in the developing world who are relentlessly fighting
against the shrinking democratic space in the third world under the
neo-liberal regimes.

We assert our demand that Dr Binayak Sen must be released without any
further delay along with another activist, journalist and filmmaker, Ajay
T.G. and be allowed to attend their humanitarian and professional works.

Prof Imrana Qadeer (CWDS, New Delhi)
Prof Arun Kumar (CESP, JNU, New Delhi)
Prof Avijit Pathak (CSSS, JNU, New Delhi)
Prof Mohan Rao (CSMCH, JNU, New Delhi)
Prof K R Nayar (CSMCH, JNU, New Delhi)
Dr Vivek Kumar (CSSS, JNU, New Delhi)
Dr Rohan D'souza (CSSP, JNU,New Delhi)