[Reader-list] First anniversary of Binayaksen.net : a year of Campaigning

[Anivar Aravind]

Dear Friends,

Binayaksen.net completes 1 Year of its Campaigning for the Dr. Binayak Sen'e
release . Please see the anniversary post at
http://www.binayaksen.net/2009/05/first-anniversary/

~ Regards
Anivar
Hum Dekhenge, Woh Din Ke Jiska Wada Hei, Hum
Dekhenge……….<http://www.binayaksen.net/2009/05/first-anniversary/>
http://www.binayaksen.net/2009/05/first-anniversary/
Posted at May 1, 2009

1 May 2009 will mark the first anniversary of binayaksen.net.

The site was born last year amidst an unprecedented surge of citizen
activism worldwide calling for the release of Dr Binayak Sen, incarcerated
on false charges in a Raipur jail since 14 May 2007.

Nobel laureates<http://www.binayaksen.net/2008/05/nobel-winners-call-for-release-of-dr-binayak-sen/>,
medical <http://www.binayaksen.net/info/medical-camps/>
professionals<http://www.binayaksen.net/2009/04/letter-to-chief-justice-of-india/>,
academics <http://www.binayaksen.net/2009/04/letter-to-the-guardian/>,journalists<http://www.binayaksen.net/info/press-reports/>,
human rights <http://www.binayaksen.net/info/articles/> and health
activists<http://www.binayaksen.net/info/protests/>
, students <http://www.binayaksen.net/info/global-action/>, workers, rural
folk <http://www.binayaksen.net/info/raipur-satyagraha/> – the sheer range
of people who have got involved in this epic struggle to challenge the
injustice done to Dr Sen - and through him to all of us- has been truly
phenomenal. The forms of struggle adopted also have been diverse – there
have been street rallies,
satyagrahas<http://www.binayaksen.net/topic/raipur-satyagraha/>,
signature campaigns, seminars, public lectures, medical
camps<http://www.binayaksen.net/info/medical-camps/>,
soliciting of media coverage
<http://www.binayaksen.net/info/press-reports/>and representations
to Indian state officials <http://www.binayaksen.net/info/statements/> at
various levels.

As a platform binayaksen.net <http://www.binayaksen.net/>, along with
several <http://www.freebinayaksen.org/>
other<http://www.aidboston.org/FreeBinayakSen/index.htm>similar<http://www.savebinayak.ukaid.org.uk/index.html>sites<http://gyanoprobha.typepad.com/gyanoprobha/dr_binayak_sen/>,
was meant to help all those interested, to follow the course of protest,
debate, the farcical trial in Raipur and media coverage of Dr Sen’s case. .
In this we have, with varying degrees of efficiency, succeeded in our modest
mission.

What we have not succeeded in achieving, along with our fellow activists in
India and around the world, is of course securing the actual release of Dr
Sen- and in that sense the past year has been one of repeated
disappointments too. Not only has he been arrested on trumped up charges and
subjected to a painfully slow trial
<http://www.binayaksen.net/2009/04/a-right-to-a-fair-trial-a-right-to-life/>in
an allegedly ‘fast track court’, he has also been repeatedly denied bail and
in recent weeks even his right to medical treatment at a facility of his
choice in the country.

What we are confronting through the case of Dr Sen is really the Indian
Establishment at its brutal worst- where its contempt for democratic norms
is openly visible for the entire world to see. It has indeed been a great
lesson to many in the way Indian democracy itself really operates when it
comes to dealing with people who threaten this country’s deeply exploitative
system- masked as it is by the noisy circus of regular elections,
bureaucratic procedures of law and the exercise of superficial freedoms.

The worldwide efforts <http://www.binayaksen.net/info/global-action/>for Dr
Sen’s release have not been in vain of course for in these two years he has
also transformed into a universal symbol of both the triumphs and travails a
person of conscience inevitably goes through in any part of our planet. The
legions of those who never knew Dr Sen before his arrest, have never ever
met him and yet are passionately involved in the fight for his release is
indicative of how the mere iron bars of the prison his captors have put him
behind can never contain the message of personal integrity, public service
and steadfast opposition to social injustice he represents.

So on our first anniversary and as we approach 14 May 2009, we sincerely
hope that the people around the globe, just like last year and in even
greater measure, will once again take to the streets demanding Dr Sen’s
immediate release. And do so- if we may suggest- with these immortal words
of Faiz Ahmed Faiz <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faiz_Ahmed_Faiz>, as sung
by Iqbal Bano <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iqbal_Bano>, South Asia’s queen
of ghazals - on their lips:

*‘‘Hum Dekhenge, Woh Din Ke Jiska Wada Hei, Hum
Dekhenge……….”<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3MIjoi381I>(We shall
witness, Certainly we, too shall witness that day, That has been
promised to us….)*

--
Free Binayak Sen campaign
http://binayaksen.net
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"The resources of the world are for us all to share. Let us affirm our faith
in that common cause" - Dr. Ilina Sen