Presentation of the statement by the PUDR — People’s Union for Democratic Rights:

The widespread campaign to release Dr Binayak Sen and repeal the Chattisgarh Special Public
Security Act received a fillip today with one of
the world’s foremost public intellectuals,
Professor Noam Chomsky, demanding that he be
released.

Noam Chomsky, Romila Thapar, Irfan Habib,
Arundhati Roy, Prabhat Patnaik, Ashok Mitra,
Habib Tanvir, and Rajendra Yadav and many other
intellectuals, writers, and poets, issued a
statement today, in which they said they were
"dismayed at the continued detention in custody
of Dr Binayak Sen, General Secretary of the PUCL,
since 14 May“. His arrest, their statement said,”is clearly an attempt to intimidate PUCL and
other democratic voices that have been speaking
out against human rights violations in
[Chattisgarh]". They have demanded that that Dr
Binayak Sen be released immediately; that
harassment of other activists be stopped; that
the Salwa Judum be disbanded; and that the
Chattisgarh Special Public Security Act 2006 and
the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 2004 be
repealed. See the statement bewolow.

NAGRAJ ADVE, SHASHI SAXENA
Secretaries PUDR

The statement

RELEASE DR BINAYAK SEN, REPEAL CHATTISGARH ACT

We, the undersigned, are dismayed at the
continued detention of Dr Binayak Sen, General
Secretary of the Chhattisgarh People’s Union for
Civil Liberties (PUCL), since 14 May. Dr Binayak
Sen is also National Vice-President of PUCL, one
of the oldest civil liberties organizations in
India.

Dr Sen epitomises a dwindling tradition in India
of public health professionals taking health care
to the poorest sections and most underdeveloped
regions of this country. For the past 30 years,
he has been promoting community rural health care
centres. He was a member of the state advisory
committee that piloted a community-based health
worker programme in Chhattisgarh. He also helped
establish the Shaheed Hospital in Dalli Rajhara,
set up and operated by workers for over 25 years.

We believe that the arrest of Dr Binayak Sen is a
grave assault on the democratic rights movement
in India. PUCL Chhattisgarh has been one of the
foremost independent organizations to draw
attention to the excesses committed by the
Chhattisgarh government under its Salwa Judum
campaign. The fake encounters, rapes, burning of
villages and displacement of adivasis in tens of
thousands and consequent loss of livelihoods have
been extensively chronicled by several
independent investigations. Dr Sen’s arrest is
clearly an attempt to intimidate PUCL and other
democratic voices that have been speaking out
against human rights violations in the state. In
recent days, the targets of state harassment have
widened to include Dr Ilina Sen, who for years
has been active in the women’s movement, Gautam
Bandopadhyaya of Nadi Ghati Morcha, PUCL’s Rashmi
Dwivedi, and other activists of PUCL.

Dr Sen has been detained under the Chhattisgarh
Special Public Security Act, 2006 and the
Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 2004 on
charges that are completely baseless. Both these
extraordinary laws have been criticized by
numerous civil rights groups for being extremely
vague and subjective in what is deemed unlawful,
and for giving arbitrary powers to the State to
silence all manner of dissent. As was feared,
these undemocratic laws have been used to target
Dr Sen and PUCL Chhattisgarh.

We demand:

1. That all charges against Dr Sen be
dropped and that he should be released
immediately;

2. That the threats to and harassment of
other activists be stopped immediately;

3. The immediate disbanding of the Salwa Judum; and

4. That the Chhattisgarh Special Public
Security Act, 2006 and the Unlawful Activities
(Prevention) Act, 2004 be repealed.

SIGNATORIES

1. Professor Noam Chomsky
2. Professor Romila Thapar
3. Professor Irfan Habib
4. Dr Ashok Mitra
5. Habib Tanvir
6. Arundhati Roy
7. Professor Amiya Bagchi
8. Professor Prabhat Patnaik
9. Rajendra Yadav
10. Professor Sumit Sarkar
11. Dilip Chitre
12. Professor Jean Dreze
13. Professor Utsa Patnaik
14. Professor Namwar Singh
15. Shyam Benegal
16. Professor Jayati Ghosh
17. Anand Patwardhan
18. Professor Utsa Patnaik
19. Professor Imrana Qadeer
20. Dr Rama Baru
21. Dr Ritu Priya
22. Professor Tanika Sarkar
23. Anand Swaroop Verma
24. Sayera Habib
25. Professor Abhijit Sen
26. Geetha Hariharan
27. Professor Jasodhara Bagchi
28. Dr Uma Chakravarti
29. Professor Anand Chakravarti
30. Gopa Sen
31. Krishna Suman
32. Dunu Roy
33. Dr K. J. Mukherjee
34. Amar Kanwar
35. Vrinda Grover
36. Dr Mohan Rao
37. Professor K.R. Nayar