OUT ON BAIL, BUT NOT YET FREE

Dr. Binayak Sen is out of prison on bail.  His case is not yet settled.

50% of people in ST and 60% in SC are malnourished.

And India is pretending to no longer be a Third World country.  What a pile!

Binayak felicitated by sympathisers

24 May 2011

KOLKATA, 24 MAY: We do not approve of any form of violence, be it by the state or those who oppose the state, but when a community's survival is at stake, how should it respond? Asked Dr Binayak Sen during a felicitation ceremony organised at the University Institute Hall to honour his work in the field of health and human rights today.
The ceremony was organised by the doctors and human rights activists who campaigned for Dr Sen's release during his imprisonment under sedition laws.


Dr Sen said 50 per cent of people belonging to Scheduled Tribes, 60 per cent of people belonging to Scheduled Castes, and a large percentage of people belonging to minority communities suffer from undernourishment. He said that these communities survive as they have access to common property resources like forest, water bodies and mountains. Now the state wants to assert its rights over their traditional properties and is acting as a broker by taking resources from the weak and handing them over to the privileged class. This is being legitimised now. “In order to obtain control over these resources, owners (tribals) have to be shifted out. This is what Salwa Judum is all about,” Mr Sen added. “Mahatma Gandhi was also charged under Sedition laws,” Dr Sen said, adding sedition is considered to be “prince” among all crimes. sns