Thaindian News

New Delhi, July 25 (IANS) Medha Patkar, Arundhati Roy, Shabnam Hashmi, Justice Rajinder Sachar, Swami Agnivesh — the list of social and peace activists, lawyers and others was long at the first public meeting of civil rights leader Binayak Sen, after his bail two months back, in the capital Saturday.
Welcoming him back in the “free world”, the members of the civil society said they had every reason to believe that the bail will only “reach its logical end” and that Sen will finally be acquitted.

An award-winning paediatrician and a civil rights activist, Sen, 59, was jailed May 14, 2007 for his alleged links with Maoist guerrillas.

The national vice-president of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Sen was held at the state’s Bilaspur town May 14, 2007 under the stringent Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act and later lodged at the Raipur central jail.

After two years of imprisonment, Sen was given bail by the Supreme Court May 25 this year.

Author and activist Arundhati Roy, while welcoming the bail, said that Sen’s arrest was an example of collateral damage that the state was probably ready to take in order to fight the Maoists.

“We better be scared of this kind of collateral damage and speak up against it. Maoists are of course provoking a military backlash. But if there is no delegitimising military solution to social problems, as Binayak Sen says, then we are in trouble,” Roy said.

Talking about protecting such human rights activists as Sen, Justice Rajinder Sachar said: “Human rights defenders must be defended otherwise the entire human rights movement will fall apart. Binayak’s is an example.”

Supporting Sen, who has always championed the peaceful route while solving any social problem, spiritual guru Swami Agnivesh said that only peace can bring about stability in crisis hit areas, be it Chhattisgarh or any other place.