Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh asked the prime minister to review the decision of appointing activist Dr Binayak Sen on a Planning Commission panel, saying his contribution to health sector is "hugely exaggerated" and there is little on ground to support it.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted bail to Piyush Guha, who was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment along with civil rights activist Binayak Sen in a sedition case. The vacation bench of justices G S Singhvi and C K Prasad suspended the sentence of life imprisonment and directed Guha's release on bail.The bench also directed Guha to furnish a bail bond of Rs two lakh and two sureties of one lakh each. Guha, a Kolkata-based businessman, was convicted along with Sen.
Amnesty International on Saturday described human rights activist Binayak Sen as a prisoner of conscience and flayed his conviction by a Chhatisgarh court, saying it violated international standards of fair trial. The prison term awarded to Sen has evoked outrage among social activists in India, who warned that the politically-motivated charges could enflame tensions in the country's conflict-hit areas. The international rights body appealed to the Indian government.
Expressing shock over the awarding of life sentence to rights activist Binayak Sen on charges of sedition, over 80 intellectuals including Noam Chomsky on Monday demanded that his appeal be heard 'expeditiously' with 'enlightened reason' and sought his immediate release on bail.They claimed that Sen never resorted to violence or incited anyone else to do so. On the contrary, as a doctor and a human rights activist, he stood up in defence of the rights of the downtrodden.
The Chhattisgarh High Court admitted an appeal filed by rights activist Binayak Sen, challenging the life sentence given to him by a local court after being convicted for sedition and links with Maoists, and posted the matter for hearing on January 24.
'I don't think any other human rights person had so much of people's support,' says Mrs Ilina Sen.
The Binayak Sen case illustrates the urgent need for a mass-based nation-wide civil liberties movement, says Rajni Bakshi.
'This insanity must stop. Or else, the State will lose its legitimacy in the eyes of the people. Then, the Maoists will have achieved their purpose of discrediting not just the State, but democracy itself.'
Reiterating that he does not condone any form of violence -- neither state nor non-state actors -- social activist Binayak Sen Friday said that the Supreme Court judgment on Salwa Judum will become "the foundation of our democratic polity."
After being released on bail by the Supreme Court while serving a life sentence for sedition and links with Maoists, Binayak Sen is ready to campaign for others who have been languishing in jails over similar charges.
Balmurli Natrajan, anthropology professor at the William Paterson University in New Jersey, is one of the most visible campus activists in the country. He is involved with the South Asia Solidarity Initiative, which impacts public discourse in the United States.
Maoists were getting encouragement from civil society and support of well-minded citizens was required to stem the menace, West Bengal Governor M K Narayanan said on Friday."The Maoists are getting the upper hand in people's mind because they are getting encouragement from a section of civil society," Narayanan said. "We need the support of well minded citizens so that matters don't go out of control," he said.
Many of us have a kind of apocalyptic view of famine, and there is no doubt that, once the stigmata of starvation are revealed, the images haunt you lifelong, says Dr Binayak Sen in his speech at the fifth annual K C John memorial lecture at Kovalam Literary Festival in Trivandrum
'So many civil liberties activists have been killed by the State and their deaths left unaccounted for that I am beginning to despair.'
"We have seen the same thing after 2014 (elections) in the name of 'award wapsi', this is just part two of that," the minister said
'The new generation voter is hyper-nationalistic, but it isn't essentially illiberal.' 'They will find the rants of Adityanath as laughable as Irfan Habib's. They will also find the BJP's polarising approach to vote-gathering unacceptable if it fails to deliver jobs and growth,' says Shekhar Gupta.
Bengaluru police had slapped sedition charges against Amnesty after an event it had organised on allegations of human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir.
'In the history of Maharashtra this is the first case in which all the persons chargesheeted were all convicted under all the sections they were charged with, and sentenced to life.'
In the last ten years, 96 per cent of the sedition cases against 405 individuals pertained to making critical remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, points out Ramesh Menon, author, Modi Demystified: The Making Of A Prime Minister.
In the letter dated July 23, the celebrities have said that "exemplary punishment" should be meted out "swiftly and surely" in such cases.
Three mentees pay homage to Sherna Gandhy, the legendary journalist and editor who passed into the ages on April 28 after a long battle with cancer.
'Such a serious threat -- to assassinate the prime minister of India, no less -- was not handed over to the Maharashtra Anti Terrorist Squad for investigation, but to the Pune crime branch.' 'So much for seriousness in tackling such a grave issue,' says N Suresh.
'Ludicrous they might be, but they are not without threats -- much like letters that appear suddenly in homes of those opposing the government.' 'One must exercise some caution before believing in them,' says Uttaran Das Gupta.
The church authorities said Swamy's body will be cremated in Mumbai after completing certain formalities and his ashes will be taken to Ranchi and Jamshedpur in Jharkhand, the state where he was based.
Mamata set 6 conditions for the state government to withdraw their four-day-long stir.
Umar claimed that he was being labelled a terrorist because of Islam, which, he said, he did not practise.
'The UPA was never soft on Pakistan, terrorists and even China, but Sonia Gandhi's Congress rightly earned a "soft" image on issues of hard national interest, leaving the field open for Modi to take it and wrap it around with his implicit Hindutva,' says Shekhar Gupta.
'If you put colour-coded internal security maps of India in May 2014 and now, the picture won't be flattering to Modi.' 'Failures on internal security are now piling up and can break Modi's momentum,' says Shekhar Gupta.
'People see problems not being solved, they get tired of waiting, they start asking for a "strong leader" -- and what they really mean is a "dictator". They think that will fix everything. But it won't.' A German resident in India tells Dilip D'Souza about Hitler and the Nazis and why he is disturbed by what he sees in present-day India.
'Is it a crime to be inspired by the Left ideology? Why can't I read a book on Marxist philosophy? Is it banned in India?'
'How many people have been skilled up and thus able to escape from needing to be in NREGA? The true success of NREGA would lie in its irrelevance -- that is, people no longer need it as a crutch.' 'NREGA should enable them to climb out of poverty and stand on their feet.' 'But this is expressly forbidden by NREGA rules. Skill development, which is what India needs more than anything else, appears to be outside the purview of NREGA,' points out Rajeev Srinivasan.
Vernon Gonsalves, who spent nearly six years in jail after being labelled a Naxalite by the security agencies, recounts in detail his arrest, the case against him and his future plans in an exclusive interview.
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