NeW Delhi: In an unprecedented ruling, the Raipur sessions court on Dec 24 sentenced noted activist Dr Binayak Sen to life imprisonment for sedition and alleged Naxal links. A travesty of justice is how leading human rights activists and even Nobel laureates have greeted the verdict which held Dr Sen guilty of sedition.
Is the verdict fair? What has been the real work of Dr Sen in MP and Chhattisgarh? Is the quantum of punishment too harsh? ibnlive.com on Thursday invited Dr Ilina Sen, wife of the jailed activist, to chat with readers on these questions on the case that has not only polarised people on either sides of the state's development paradigm, but even the judiciary with some prominent jurists openly coming out against the verdict.
When a reader asked if the life imprisonment has been given with the intention of creating an example out of Dr Binayak Sen, she said, "Making an example of him will not reduce Maoist violence nor will it soften the state's response to dissent. It may silence a few middle class intellectuals, but that is neither here nor there."
When asked if she thinks Dr Binayak Sen's lawyers failed to defend him, she said, "Binayak has had excellent lawyers. The pity is that the cross examination of the prosecution witnesses, which demolish their testimonies, have not been taken into account. This has not been prosecution but persecution."
She said the BJP is bad at handling the Naxal question. When a reader asked if she thought BJP is responsible for Naxalism in India considering the party is in power in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bihar, Dr Sen said, "The Naxals are also there in West Bengal. So, BJP is certainly not responsible for generating the problem, only for the way it handles it."
Another reader asked who, according to her, is behind the 'conspiracy' of branding her husband as a Naxalite, she said it's the Chhattisgarh police. "Tell me one instance when Dr Binayak Sen has 'openly supported Naxals'. He has opposed Salwa Judum and displacement. But so has the Supreme Court of India," she said.
Referring to the multi-crore scamster politicians who roam around freely and even defend themselves on national television while activists like Dr Sen are thrown behind bars, she said, "I can only say that my expectations from my country and its Constitution is higher than that from those who chose to live outside the law."
On a closing note, she said the breakdown in governance and dialogue must not go any further. Only through widespread and open dialogue can we as a nation ever hope to come out of this, she said.
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