Dr. Binayak Sen, a pediatrician by profession , human rights activist and also the Vice-President of the People’s Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL), was sentenced to life imprisonment on December 24, 2010, after having been “found guilty” by Shri B.P.Verma, a sessions judge of Raipur in the State of Chattisgarh in India, of the charge of sedition by colluding with Maoists to establish a network to fight the state. Dr. Sen had been accused by the police of acting as a courier for Naxal ideologue Narayan Sanyal, who was in jail, by carrying his messages and letters to the underground Maoists.

Although I have been seeing lots of generous support for and against Binayak Sen’s verdict on various social networking sites, it was Kiran Kumar’s (@KiranKS) blog that urged me to pen down my thoughts here. He and his “saffron gang” on twitter had virtually challenged me to “reply” to his “open questions” on twitter.

First things first, I have to tell this to clarify a few things:

a) I am a proud Indian and have the highest regard and esteem for our greatest democracy and judiciary of our nation.

b) I haven’t met Dr. Binayak Sen ever, neither am I related to him /his family or his actions or affiliations and my interpretations are based on what I have read and heard on the media.

c) I don’t intend to say anything with the intention of the contempt of court but my views stand for as an ordinary citizen of India who has the highest confidence on the freedom of speech of the country.

d) I am neither an office bearer nor a member of any political party but have always voted for the Congress party who led the freedom struggle for the nation, because of which I now have the freedom to express my thoughts and views, tweet or blog about it. Support for Congress doesn’t mean that I am involved in or endorse on 2GScam, Adharsh scam, CWG Scam and whatsoever.

e) I love my country India and am a tax payer.

f) I deeply condemn the violence and non-state actions of the Naxals and Maoists and I am no way related with them or endorse / support their inhuman activities or idealogies. In short, I am also NOT a Naxal sympathizer.

g) My belief in my religion doesn’t have anything to do for my support to Dr. Sen. I am not even sure whether he is Christian or not, as alleged by some on twitter.

h) I haven’t read the complete judgment written in Hindi and I am waiting for the translation.

The below points are bulleted in numbers to map to the allegations and points on Kiran’s blog. Do check his blog for corresponding context in detail, for better understanding.

1) Kiran questions why the nine of the JNU staff are supporting Binayak Sen while JNU is one of the most reputed institutes of India. The signed activists have expressed their support for Dr. Sen in their personal capacities and have never endorsed as the official position of their institution. Please note that it was signed not only by JNU professors but many others from different walks of life. Just like you have the freedom of expressing your own point of views, I strongly urge to accept the fact that they have the same freedom of speech. Not only they have, every citizen of India had the freedom of speech underlined by our constitution. Come on, we are not in China.

2) Dr John Dayal (President, All India Catholic Union and Member NIC) supports the above statement of protest. Kiran laments that Mr. Dayal is also in Manmohan Singh & Sonia Gandhi’s National “Integration” Council! So what? Does that deprive him of his fundamental freedom of speech? Just because he is a Christian or may be as a leader of a Christian organisation, does he stand to lose his basic rights of expression in India? I am not sure whether Mr. John is a congress supporter too. Even if he is, doesn’t he have his voice of opinion for the support of Dr.Sen. Don’t forget that veteran BJP member Ram Jethmalani have also now openly support Sen and offered to help his case. Or does that make Dr Sen a BJP supporter? That probably answers what Kachan Gupta wondered on why Naxals have now expressed their support for Dr. Sen…Or another way, haven’t he noticed multiple outfits trying to claim responsibility whenever there is a terror blast ?

3) Can you show me any evidence of any Christian evangelical organisation now in India who have funded any terrorist or anti-national activity? AFAIK, No! Even if it does, they should be brought to justice.

4) Kiran seems to glorify his saffron supporters but condemns anyone who questions saffron terror. He seem to believe that somebody who question saffron terror lose their citizenship and freedom of expression automatically. Terror in its any manifestation, green, saffron or white is inhuman and should be strongly fought against. Who told you that those supporting injustice to Binayak Sen are also support the Naxals? At least I am NOT!

5) As I had already explained, I have the highest regard of our Indian judicial system. That doesn’t mean that our system is 200 % perfect. We have had lots of cases and allegations in India against judges. One of the judges in India is now close of impeachment for financial irregularity. The former CJI of Karnataka is also accused of very serious financial irregularity and land grabbing. If we aren’t open to healthy criticism, it will take us back to the days of anarchy. Let us call a spade a spade! If the King is naked, let us admit it!

6) Everyone in India have their right to opinions, including the media people. While you strongly condemn the support tweets of some journalists, you and your gang have been patronizing the tweets of journos like Kanchan Gupta who is venomously tweeting against Dr Sen on twitter. Ok, is it something like this? Whoever supports your views are gods and the rest are branded asuras. Get well soon, my friend!

7) IMHO, trial by media is fundamentally wrong. Media is supposed to be the watchdogs of the democracy. Their duty is to bring the facts and truth to the people but not proclaim judgment to various social issues. I am not sure whether you are aware that I was one of the strongest protestors on twitter during Radia tapes and bharkhagate times. Hundreds of tweets on #bharkhagate and #mediagate from me and its retweets were one of reasons that the issue was kept alive trending on twitter for a week till the main stream media decided to open its “silence”. Even the Wikipedia article on Radia Tapes controversy was started by me.

:8) Do you expect Binayak Sen to be addressing all the human right violations across the world? See what we have given him in return for getting involved in just one issue in Chattisgarh.

9) Check the facts. Binayak Sen have always condemned the atrocities of the Naxals and Maoists and do did of “state sponsored terror”. His crime, he voiced difficult questions for the state.

10) Why did Binayak Sen meet Narayan Sanyal 33 times in 1 month in prison? Let me ask him if I meet him . I am still giving Sen the benefit of doubt on the reasons why he did that, considering his humanitarian activities. I will probably research soon and add it here. So if the state had objections in Sen meeting Sanyal in a state owned prison, why didn’t they object but allowed his free meeting with Sanyal. Sen didn’t meet Sanyal in a hiding place, for god’s sake. I have never been to a prison to meet anyone so I am not sure if these meetings happen in presence of jail officials. Now you are welcome to frame new conspiracies that Sen met Sanyal to convert him to Christian.LOL.

11) Kiran asks why Sewa Bharati (yeah.. that dreaded RSS affiliation, as he himself describes them) doctors working in tribal areas of Chhattisgarh not meeting naxals ? You are the saffron spokesman on twitter right, why don’t you ask them directly? Did you conveniently forget that RSS top leader Indresh Kumar was interrogated by Central Bureau of Investigation sleuths in connection with the May 2007 blast that killed nine persons. Indresh Kumar was asked about his meeting in a Jaipur guesthouse with Swami Assemanand , also attended by by Pryagya Singh Thakur and Sunil Joshi, accused in the Malegaon and Ajmer blasts cases. He was also asked about the conspiracy to bomb the Mecca Masjid. Ok, now that you may close as state conspiracy to defame him and the RSS. I don’t think you might have so violently protested against Sen, had this happened in a non-BJP ruled government, where the integrity of the government came into strong criticism from all corners of the state. Grow up, dude!

12) Kiran talks about this “genuine timeline” of how Binayak Sen’s trial. Did you missing seeing the following statements on the same page “ May 4, 2009: Supreme Court issues notice to Chhattisgarh government questioning Sen’s detention and demanding its response in two weeks.”, “May 25: Sen released on bail by Supreme Courts vacation bench of Justice Markandey Katju and Justice Deepak Verma.” Doesn’t the Supreme Court believe that he is a “dreaded terrorist” who is risky to be released on bail? “Late August-early September, 2010: Supreme Court directs Chhattisgarh government to complete presenting its evidence against Sen by end-September.” Was the Chhattisgarh government sitting on the case to deny justice to Dr.Sen? ; If I may be allowed to ask. Yes, the honourable Supreme Court was closely monitoring the case. And let the case come to the highest seat of justice in our country and I am sure truth will prevail.

13) Kiran claimed to have researched a bit of facts about Binayak Sen case. I humbly request him to research on whole facts (not bits of it) , not miraged by any kind of ideological captivity.

14) Nobody is asking, just because he is a Doctor, things should be treated differently. Ordinary citizens like us ask to evaluate whether he can do such alleged things considering his previous track record.

15) I have already expressed my thoughts on media trail and I don’t want to repeat it again.

16) AFAIK Amnesty International is reputed non-political organisation. Their stands may or not appreciable to all governments though. Why didn’t they raise voice for Deganga riot victims? Ask them. Since I am also personally unaware of the history and context of Deganga riots, I am not commenting on it. Now don’t accuse me of not knowing every riot that happened in this world. I am just an ordinary citizen who has a busy professional, personal and social life.

17) Personally I have the deepest support for hundreds of Kashmiri Pundits who were thrown out of their homeland.

18) Pakistani terrorist Kasab was caught red handed killing scores of innocent people, and it is ridiculous that Kiran and his folks comparing him with a good human like Binayak Sen who had dedicated his life for service of the poor and under privileged. Compare Sen with people like Vir Savarkar & Mahatma Gandhi who were jailed for sedition against the state. We all saw Kasab with guns killing people; Did you see Dr Sen going around and helping the Naxals in killing innocent lifes ? I wondered whether he had ever touched a real gun in his life.

19) Nobody is questioning what Narayan Sanyal is accused of. Just because Sen met Sanyal in a state prison with permissions doesn’t mean that he was supporting Sanyal and Naxal activities. Going by Kiran’s logic, the jail officials must be charged for “supporting” all the crimes of the criminals in the jail, whom they are meeting every day.

20) Did you read the fact why Sen met Sanyal 33 times?  Didn’t L K Advani and Arun Jaitley meet Amit Shah, the powerful ex-minister accused of being the mastermind in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case, in jail? Didn’t Advani convey his anxiety to the prime minister when Sadhvi Pragya, accused of terrorism, complained of torture in jail? Sanyal and his relatives had approached Dr Sen, a doctor, to help him get treatment for fibromatosis on his hands. And Dr Sen didn’t just walk in to meet Sanyal in a secret hiding place. Every time he met him, he got permission as PUCL general secretary, on the PUCL letterhead. These applications for permission are part of the court record.

21) Your attempts to saintify the deeds of RSS should ideally have nothing to do with Binayak Sen. I totally agree that some good deeds of a person don’t justify the same person’s bad actions.

22) Wasn’t Pravin Tagodia the same person who spit venom on other communities on national televisions? When did Binayak Sen ever spread any communal hatred or actions of violence?

23) Kanchan Gupta although a journalist has known allegiance to the right wing groups and ideologies. His Wikipedia article documents him as one of few right-wing journalists. His reaction to Sen where a BJP government is questioned is understandable. While I do respect his personal views, I encourage him to talk facts than emotions.

24) I was told Binayak Sen was charged with Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act, applicable only in Chhattisgarh and not the whole of India. CSPSA is itself controversial in nature and its definition of “unlawful activities” is accused of imperiling the free exercise of fundamental freedoms set out under Article 19 of the Constitution and this legislation was meant to suppress all political dissent in the state. Maoist groups were already banned under 2004 amendments to the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 and claim that this law is needed for better action against Naxals & Maoists is blatantly false. The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) had already expressed its reservations about the Act, and said it may become a potential instrument to throttle the right to free speech, legitimate dissent, and trample the fundamental rights enshrined in Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Indian Constitution.

This blog post was intended to answer some of the “open questions” from Kiran. I do respect his personal opinions and my sincere apologies if this post looked too personal, but there is a nothing personal as such, but this is my take on a healthy discussion. Having asked to answer his questions, I had to do it as a blog here and not limited by 140 characters on twitter. As I said earlier, this was to answer the questions raised by a fellow twitterer. This post was written in haste and I may reword a few things, proof read , add more explanations etc in time to time and so feel free to check back again later…

Ok, I have answered your questions , Kiran…I should agree to at least one thing which Kiran said on his blog  “Satyam Eva Jayate =  Truth Shall Always Prevail! “ and so shall be…

My other personal thoughts on the case & veridict can be seen here ……...

Update: On April 15,2011, The Supreme Court of India granted bail to Binayak Sen. During the hearing, the bench observed that “we are a democratic country. He may be a sympathiser (of Naxalites) but it did not make him guilty of sedition. He is a sympathiser. Nothing beyond that,” the bench further said, perusing the affidavit filed by the Chhattisgarh government opposing his bail.