Chomsky, Romila Thapar condemn Binayak's conviction Special Correspondent Share · print · T+ Public outrage at the sentencing of physician and rights activist Binayak Sen continued on Tuesday, with philosopher Noam Chomsky, historian Romila Thapar and 80 others, including leading academics, writers and journalists, signing a joint statement condemning the “unbelievable savagery” of the sentence.
Urging his immediate release as well as the early hearing of his appeal “with enlightened reason” by the higher judiciary, the statement said: “The damage done by this shocking verdict to our Constitutional order must be undone.” The statement expressed shock that Dr. Sen should have been held guilty of sedition and sentenced to life. It said: “Dr. Sen never resorted to violence against any other person, never incited anyone else to resort to violence, never entered into any conspiracy against the constitutional order of the country, and never entered into regular service of any organisation that was involved in any such conspiracy, for furthering its cause. On the contrary, as a doctor he served the people with devotion and helped to save many lives; as a human rights activist he stood up in defence of the rights of the downtrodden. And yet he has been handed down this sentence whose savagery is unbelievable. “Such an action on the part of the State in the name of preserving the constitutional order will only serve to undermine that constitutional order itself. It will inevitably raise the thought in the minds of many that an order within which the activities of a person like Dr. Sen can be held to be ‘seditious' is not worth defending. “Such an impression must be avoided. The damage done by this shocking verdict to our constitutional order must be undone. The higher judiciary of the country must hear his appeal expeditiously, must grant him immediate bail till the end of the appeal process, and must judge his case with enlightened reason.” Signatories The other signatories of the statement include writer Gita Hariharan; member of the National Advisory Council Harsh Mander; Prabhat Patnaik, Utsa Patnaik, Jayati Ghosh, C.P. Chandrasekhar, Kamal Chenoy, Anuradha Chenoy, Nivedita Menon, Tanika Sarkar and Neeladri Bhattacharya (all from the Jawaharlal Nehru University); Nandini Sundar, Chitra Joshi, Achin Vanaik, Alok Rai and Partho Datta (all from the Delhi University); Malini Bhattacharya and Mihir Bhattacharya, from the Jadavpur University; lawyer Prashant Bhushan; director of National Archives of India Mushirul Hasan; the former Finance Minister of West Bengal, Ashok Mitra; Muchkund Dubey, former Foreign Secretary and Ambassador; educationists Sasi Kumar and Vinod Raina; and Tata Institute of Social Sciences T. Jayaraman. On 12/29/10, prasanth P.V. <[email protected]> wrote: > These people are not coming from outside India. They are the citizons > of this largest democracy. After 63 years of our independence, people > in these areas are deprived of minimum standard of life, even though > our government is supposed to be spending crores of mony for poverty > iradication. What happened, ten to twenty% of our population became > richer. I am not justifying killing. But, when we are denied of the > basic rights to which we are entitled to like food, water, education > etc, don't know the will be sharp reaction. > > On 12/29/10, BHAWANI SHANKAR VERMA <[email protected]> wrote: >> what about those inocent people have been killed by naxalites in various >> landmine blasts. is there any online petition to send messages to these >> so >> called democratic (mauist) people. no doubt, sen is a good social worker, >> he >> was providing treatment to the tribles. why he met the mauist more than >> 30 >> times in jail? if he was a doctor, social worker, he should continue with >> his profession and socialism. if the naxalites are democratic, and those >> who >> are supporting them, why don't they go to the trible areas of chattisgarh >> and distribute foods and grains? the entire public distribution system >> has >> been blocked by the naxalite people there. even you can not easily get >> vegetables there. >> thanks. >> >> ----- Original Message ----- >> From: "prasanth P.V." <[email protected]> >> To: "bsftb" <[email protected]>; "accessindia" >> <[email protected]> >> Sent: Tuesday, December 28, 2010 6:15 PM >> Subject: [AI] justice denied >> >> >>> Dear Friends, >>> >>> I have just read and signed the online petition: >>> >>> "Indian Justice Has Failed Dr Binayak Sen" >>> >>> hosted on the web by PetitionOnline.com, the free online petition >>> service, at: >>> >>> http://www.PetitionOnline.com/sen2010/ >>> >>> I personally agree with what this petition says, and I think you might >>> agree, too. If you can spare a moment, please take a look, and consider >>> signing yourself. >>> >>> Best wishes, >>> >>> Prasanth >>> >>> >>> >>> -- >>>> True friendship consists not innmultitude of friends, but in their >>>> worth> >>>> >>>> and value> >>> >>> To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] >>> with the subject unsubscribe. >>> >>> To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, >>> please visit the list home page at >>> >>> http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in >>> >> >> >> To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] >> with >> the subject unsubscribe. >> >> To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, >> please >> visit the list home page at >> >> http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in >> > > > -- >> True friendship consists not innmultitude of friends, but in their worth> >> and value> > -- > True friendship consists not innmultitude of friends, but in their worth> and > value> To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] with the subject unsubscribe. 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