The Hindu : Front Page : Binayak Sen’s life ‘under threat’

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Binayak Sen’s life ‘under threat’

Staff Reporter

KOLKATA: “There is a specific threat to my life from the Chhattisgarh government” – human rights activist and eminent doctor Binayak Sen said here on Saturday.

Dr. Sen was imprisoned at the Raipur Central Jail for two years as the Chhattisgarh police had charged him with the draconian Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act (CSPSA), 2005, and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, alleging him of having Maoist links.

He was granted bail on Monday by the Supreme Court following persistent protests against his arrest both in India and abroad.

On the sidelines of a seminar “Whither Primary Healthcare,” organised by People’s Health, he said that “some friends of mine who are high-ranked police officials in States other than Chhattisgarh” have warned him against the “specific threat.”

Coming down heavily on the CSPSA, when asked about the human rights situation in Chhattisgarh, Dr. Sen said: “In Chhattisgarh today, there is a widespread application of this law to so many other people who are in prison as well, whose name is not known as Binayak Sen’s.”

Displacement of tribal people in Chhattisgarh in a move to grab their mineral-rich land and the rise of the Salwa Judum from this process was another issue he highlighted.

“When the State government realised that Chhattisgarh has land with the most valuable minerals…[the question of] who possesses the land became a contentious issue. This fuelled the Salwa Judum. It is a programme for de-population of large areas in the State,” Dr. Sen said.

He, however, pointed that though the Salwa Judum phenomenon was restricted to certain parts of Chhattisgarh, elsewhere in the State, land was grabbed from the villagers in the name of industrialisation.

He criticised the land acquisition move by the State government for Tata Steel to set up a plant at Lohandikota, where villagers were forced to give up their land by the administration “at gunpoint.” Similar incidents happened during land acquisition for setting up the Essar and Jindal plants, he added.

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