Well we didnt have to look far on who is batting for the Maoists when this story from Tehelka surfaced in conversations, courtesy fellow bloggers on the Indian National Interest.
The story is about Dr. Binayak Sen from Raipur Chattisgarh who has been languishing in jails since May 2007 after being repeatedly denied bail from courts all the way up to the Supreme Court on charges of aiding Maoist Terrorists.
While the ethics of the extended detention are open debate the legality it must be assumed is on sound grounds with even the Supreme Court denying bail as recently as Dec 2007.
This post is not about Binayak Sen or the ethics of his detention, will leave that subject to fellow bloggers to address. This post is about Tehelka’s Half Truths in the story on Binayak Sen which goes to expose how Tehelka is one of many above the ground close communist outfits that have been batting for the Maoists.
The story of Binayak Sen hinges on the arrest of one Narayan Sanyal who also goes by the name Prasad and Bijoy. For those like this blogger who dont know who Narayan Sanyal is there is a long history of some infame. This story that appeared in The Hindu on the eve of his arrest in Bhadrachalam by Andhra Police covers some of the infamy.
The 68-year-old naxalite leader was one of the members of the CPI (Maoist) Polit Bureau and its central committee and chief of its central-eastern regional bureau monitoring the political affairs in Orissa and Chhattisgarh.
He was the schemer of the PW attack on former Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu at Alipiri in Tirupati in October 2003 and the Jehananabad jail break that resulted in liberation of 340 prisoners, including several Maoist activists, in November 2005
He was involved in as many as 21 serious cases of Maoist-sponsored violence in different eastern States, including the attack on the Police Superintendent’s convoy in Bastar in January 2005. He was also involved in the attack on the police headqarters in Korraput in Orissa in February 2004.
Thats not all Sanyal’s antecedents go back to when it all started.
Sanyal was an ideologue of the party and one of the leaders closely associated with the Naxalbari movement, had worked under Charu Majumdar and was instrumental in spreading the party in different states. He joined the party while working as a bank employee in Siliguri in West Bengal in 1966. He was in jail for five years after his arrest at Ranchi in 1972. He joined the underground cadres of the party after coming out on bail in 1977.
So here you have the most prominent figure in the Maoist Terrorist movement. The Government’s case against Binayak Sen rests on links with Sanyal.
So coming back to the Tehelka story, the usual suspects Shoma Choudhary and co. start the piece with typical Tehelka style shock and awe to overwhelm you with guilt laced with outrage against the State. To do that they paint a humanist picture of Binayak Sen going to great lengths about his Medical accomplishments. But then they conveniently forget to chronicle the extensive activism of Binayak Sen as a full time National Executive member of the PUCL, another above the ground front packed with known apologists for the Maoists and a few closet communists. In fact the first reference to Binayak Sen’s PUCL role occurs a full 10 paragraphs after we have been overwhelmed with details on the noble person he is. That too was a passing reference with no details on who Binayak Sen batted for as PUCL activist.
Be that as it may, the Tehelka story then goes on to chronicle how Sanyal is arrested in January of 2006 and how innocently he is introduced to Binayak Sen by Sanyal’s brother many months later.
In May 2006, Sanyal’s elder brother, Radhamadhab, who lived in Kol kata, wrote a letter to Binayak Sen, as the general secretary of PUCL (People’s Union for Civil Liberties), copied to other human rights organisations, asking for help in getting Sanyal a lawyer, as well as medical attention. As one of the most eminent human rights activists in the region, Binayak intervened.
Here is the problem with the Tehelka story. If Binayak Sen was first informed of Sanyal’s plight only in May on the need for medical attention how is it that Binayak Sen had this press release put out via the PUCL with his name and his e-mail address in December of 2005 alleging that Sanyal had disappeared from Raipur in Chattisgarh where he was for medical attention.
The Chhattissgarh PUCL has received today a letter from the Secretary, Chhattisgarh State Committee, CPI (Maoist).The letter says that a senior leader and member of the central committee of the CPI (Maoist) Mr. Bijoy alias Prasad who had come to Raipur for treatment ,has suddenly disappeared on the evening of 28.12.05.There is a strong possibility that he has been apprehended by the police and put under arrestÂ
The rest of the Tehelka story goes on to further debate the ethics of the case including Binayak’s activisim against Salwa Judum.
There is no mention ever of the press release by Binayak or any explanation given on why Sanyal’s brother would write a letter to Binayak in May of 2006 asking for medical and legal help when Binayak was already in the know on both the medical and legal issues in the days ahead of Sanyal’s arrest.
Offstumped Bottomline: As always Tehelka’s economy with truth is meant to shock and awe one into an outpouring of guilt while losing sight of facts.
By conveniently ignoring the press release put out by Binayak Sen on Narayan Sanyal days before his actual arrest Tehelka has attempted to put a smokescreen on Binayak Sen’s Maoist links.
By conveniently chronicling the sequence of events from May 2007 Tehelka has painted an innocent picture that brushes over tough questions.Â
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10 users commented in " Binayak Sen Maoist links – Tehelka’s Half Truths "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackFor someone hiding behind a pseudonym, you are putting out quite a smokescreen of your own, Yossarin. You have dealt with none of the substantial questions regarding the false evidence that the prosecution has painstakingly marshalled, and that have been raised in the Tehelka article. For instance, why do you persist in ignoring the fact that the connection that Dr. Sen established with Narayan Sanyal was legal, and conducted with the full knowledge and permission and invitation of the jail authorities?
As for your own “tough” question, have you considered that the two circumstances that you think are mutually exclusive are actually quite compatible. In other words, though Dr. Sen may have been aware of Sanyal’s medical and legal condition, Sanyal’s brother may not have been aware that Dr. Sen was aware, and merely wrote to him on the basis of his PUCL connection.
Why do you ignore the fact that the PUCL is still a legal organization, urging legal and non-violent solutions to the problems that are causing the people to resort to maoist violence?
Since when has someone been simply assumed to be guilty merely on the refusal of bail, before the trial had even started?
Deal with the facts, not with speculations and assumptions.
I am appalled at the naivete of this blogger, yossarin. He or she has dutifully quaffed the kool-aid rustled up by the anti-human government of Chhattisgarh in order to burden Dr. Binayak Sen with fabricated and bogus charges. Unfortunately, even the Indian Supreme Court sided with the goondas, and not the victim, in denying Dr. Sen bail. I read the article in Tehelka and found it thoughtful and even-handed. I knew Binayak Sen in medical school and can attest to his gentle and caring nature. Dr. Sen is a rare hero in these cynical times and courageously challenged the state government’s attempt to confiscate the resources and humiliate the underprivileged people in the district he served as a doctor. For this he was slapped with manufactured charges and incarcerated without bail. Such is the stuff that heroes are made from.
Anyone or any orgaisation that is involved in standing up for the rights of the underpriveledged should be ready to expect bloggers like “yossarin”. The fact that he goes by a pseudonym, testifies to his gutless nature. Come out in the open and then we can have a convincing chat. Besides, it is not just Tehelka, there have been others like Outlook, Hindustan Times etc that have written extensively about the good work done by Dr. Sen. These journalists have done some extensive investigation before committing their names to their articles. So, to dismiss them as “batting for the maoists” is mean. Perhaps,yossarin is also suggesting that the National Academy of Social Science, that conferred the gold medal on Dr. Sen, is also a front for the Maoist movement? Has “Yossarin” actually gone and seen the work that has been done by Dr. Sen and the band of dedicated professionals? Even the DGP, Mr. Vishwa Ranjan, had said in the Tehelka article that left to himself he would have put Dr. Sen under surveillance and not arrested him.Until then, Yossarin, please come with facts and try not to use your mind….you just might expose yourself and blow your cover.
Hi Yossarin,
Please take note of other notable batsmen for the maoists that I forgot to mention. The list below, by your standards, would be the opening batsmen. I do apologise to those whose names I have missed.:
Amnesty International
Human rights Watch
Naom chomsky
Amartya Sen
Indian Academy of Social Sciences ( apologies for getting the name wrong yesterday)
Dont you feel bad that you dont even have the decency to reply? Hiding again are we? You dont even respond to provocation.
Hi Yossarin,
You are doing a very good work. The anti-nationals must be exposed. We are with you.
Hi Yossarin,
The naxals are hardcore terrorists.They must be dealt firmly.
The best the nation can do is to fight the Maoists to the finish, flush out these enemies of the nation from their rat holes and put them to trial for sedition, murder, loot and mayhem.
hi yossarin, u seem like those rabid fascists of the 40s. everywhere on d net u only spit venom like some Golwalkar/Advani/Modi’s chela-chapata! although u identify urself a right-winger, u r still scared and hide ur identity in this virtual maze like all fascists who dare not do anything without full-SPG protection and state power.
I am not a Maoist nor hold any brief for them but the way you have spit venom on the Binayak Sen trial and declared him a terrorist “beyond proof” like the PM, the Home Minister & the Chhattisgarh CM – u deserve to be listed in the whos who of the 1940s directory and now (probably, real-ly) dead.
Strangely u hide ur name and your khaki shorts!
Despite human-haters like you the world has a very large number of humans attested by the support to the free binayak sen campaign: http://www.binayaksen.net.
There seems to be no evidence whatsoever for any criminal deed by the accused in this case. The basic problem seems to be legal and philosophical – what makes one a “maoist” or any other “-ist”, a way of thinking or a way of acting ? If it is a way of thinking, I am afraid the law and the government involved is on the wrong side. But then how can anyone put common sense into a “legal” profession created by British imperialists.
We are all delighted that Binayak Sen was released on bail today. Though two years late, we rejoice!
There have been quite a few of the guys who have supported Naxalism. Guys, r u ready to stand trial against the state? Guys like Binayak Sen, who want to create a separatist state should take lead. But, guess, these guys are tooooooooo cowards.
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