The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Protest against verdict in Binayak Sen case

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Tuesday, Dec 28, 2010
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Protest against verdict in Binayak Sen case

Staff Reporter

Rally will be held at the Town Hall tomorrow

Binayak Sen

BANGALORE: Joining the nationwide protest rallies that have been held to condemn the judgment of the Raipur Sessions Court in the Binayak Sen case, Bangalore too will see a large protest on Wednesday.

The verdict that convicted him for “criminal conspiracy to commit sedition” sentenced the doctor, public health expert and human rights activist to life, and has been condemned by social activists, intellectuals and liberal organisations from around the world.

‘Undemocratic'

The protest in Bangalore, slated to be held at the Town Hall from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., attempts to build public opinion, awareness and a mass movement to oppose this “undemocratic and inhumane verdict”, activists said.

The rally is jointly organised by several civil society organisations, including the People's Union for Civil Liberties, People's Democratic Forum, SICHREM, Sangama, Alternative Law Forum, Vimochana, Jana Arogya Andolana Karnataka, Janasthra and National Alliance of People's Movements.

Mr. Sen is the national vice-president of PUCL. Based out of Chhattisgarh, he had initiated several public health reforms and had spoken out against several operations of the Chhattisgarh government.

Clicktivism

Since the verdict was pronounced on December 24, several protest rallies have been held. Even New York and London saw small protests.

However, there has been considerable online activism, or clicktivism, around the campaign. The online petition, addressed to the President of India, has over 4,300 signatures as of Monday. The campaign site ( binayaksen.net) has around 2,500 visitors every day, since the verdict. On petitiononline.com, this is the most active campaign. Anivar Aravind, who was part of the team that initiated the online campaign, said: “We started this two years ago. In some sense, linking this to social media and keeping the discussion alive over the years, has helped build awareness and public opinion.”

On the micro-blogging site Twitter, Binayak Sen has been a trending topic — and indicator of topics most tweeted about — for three days. While on the first day, it was on the global trends list, on Sunday and Monday it has remained among the most talked about topics in the India trends section.

For details, email bangalore @puclkarnataka.org

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