The sentencing of Binayak Sen to life imprisonment on charges of sedition continued to evoke reactions of shock and outrage on Monday,with a number of noted academics,journalists and civil society groups slamming the judgment of the trial court in Chhattisgarh. In a statement,more than 80 scholars,artists and journalists,including Noam Chomsky,said they were deeply shocked by the verdict. Dr Binayak 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, they said in the statement. 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, the statement said. A number of civil society groups,under the umbrella of Indian Community Activists Network,also issued a statement to express their outrage over the judgment. At its surface,the verdict and the punishment assigned,seem to be a miscarriage of justice,given the various inconsistencies in the legal case. On a different level,it is emblematic of gross inequity and usurpation of democracy.After all,what is Dr Sen accused of? Even conceding the most damning accusations against him,how has he damaged the Indian state? asked the statement signed by 75 activists from different groups. In a separate note,wife of Binayak Sen,Ilina,and some other activists pointed to the inconsistencies in the judgment and said the judge had overlooked the evidence presented by the defence. The statement made by Binayak Sen,the evidence that he brought on record as to his work as a human rights activist,and the newspaper reports. have not been taken into consideration, it said.
