BUILD MASS MOVEMENT TO FREE Dr. SEN & HIS COMPANIONS

BUILD MASS MOVEMENT TO FREE Dr. BINAYAK SEN & HIS COMPANIONS

(Press Statement by LOK MORCHA PUNJAB)

Lok Morcha Punjab expresses strong resentment and dismay at the conviction & sentencing of Dr. Binayak Sen and two others to life imprisonment on the charges of sedition & conspiracy (S.124 (A) & 120-B IPC) S. 8-(1), (2), (3) and (5) of the Chhattisgarh Special Public Safety Act and S. 39 (2) of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. Dr. Binayak Sen has dedicated his entire life for the cause of the people especially tribals. In a country, where even the head of Medical Council of India, entrusted with the responsibility of enforcing ethical conduct by medical profession, is caught taking bribe and most of his fellow professionals are minting money bleeding the people white, Dr Sen choose to serve the poor and malnutritioned tribal children. He resolutely opposed the repression let loose on the adivasi people under the banner of Salwa Judam and fought for democratic rights of the people. The state has got him convicted on the basis of false evidence. The main allegation against him was of being a courier of imprisoned Naxalite leader Naryan Sanyal. Even the jail authorities did not support this allegation. The rules of evidence were shamelessly changed to secure his conviction. Instead of the police proving the charges against him beyond any reasonable doubt, as the established law is, the onus was put on him and his co-accused Narayan Sanyal & Piyush Guha to prove their innocence. It was not a fair and judicious trial. It was a traversity of justice. Dr. Binayak Sen & his companios have been convicted and sentenced, violating all cannons of justice and the principles laid down in criminal jurisprudence and International covenants.

In this conspiracy, the BJP led Chattisgarh Govt and Congress-led Central Govt are equally involved. When the Home Ministry’s Notification, threatening the intellectuals and human rights activists to be punished under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, if they did not refrain from criticizing Operation Green Hunt, failed to have any visible impact, the State needed something more deterrent, more terrifying to silence them, to shock & awe them. Dr. Binayak Sen’s conviction is a sinister step in that direction. It is intended to be a warning to all those who espouse the cause of poor and oppressed tribals, who oppose imperialist plunder of India’s mineral wealth, who cherish human rights.

To win freedom for Dr. Binayak Sen & his companions, a strong and wide-based mass movement of the toiling people, i.e. peasants, agricultural labour, industrial workers, poor people, democratic & nationalist forces is required. We cannot & should not rely on the Indian rulers and the anti-people judicial system. A strong mass movement will not only guarantee freedom for Dr. Binayak Sen & his companions, but will also deter the Indian rulers from framing up any other people’s leader in future. Lok Morcha Punjab shall strive hard, and calls upon all revolutionary & democratic forces to build such a mass movement.

N.K.JEET President AMOLAK SINGH General Secretary

LOK MORCHA PUNJAB