Normally, a system of justice is expected to deliver justice, even when the state has failed to deliver it in its governance. But where is the recourse to justice when the the entire paraphernalia of courts, laws and lawyers seem unable to deliver it? There is none.
It then becomes the task - or should do, in a country with claims to being a democracy with a free press - for public opinion to highlight the travesty of justice, and to shame the state into delivering it. The recent spate of articles - Karan Thapar's piece in the Indian Express (see list of articles under Dr. Binayak Sen on the left), the appeal from Khushwant Singh, the grand dad of Indian journalism (see below), and today's analysis by Vinay Sitapati in the Indian Express - all attest to the fact that a grave injustice is being committed here. They do not take over the function of the courts, but all carry either explicit or implicit appeals to the courts to do their job, without being influenced by the executive, and with due application of mind and attention to the spirit of the law.
Sitapati's article (the first of three parts) in the Indian Express is particularly strong at highlighting the flagrant miscarriage of justice that Binayak's continued denial of bail represents. The Supreme Court's refusal to grant bail has effectively acted as a sentence of indefinite incarceration, since the state is apparently left free to concoct one charge sheet after another, while prosecution witnesses collapse in disarray, and ham-handed attempts to insert fake evidence remain unreported in the media and unremarked by the court. Notice also from Ravi Shankar Prasad's remarks how the BJP government is attempting to turn an electoral victory into a confirmation of Binayak's alleged guilt.
The Supreme Court refuses Binayak bail on the basis of lies by the police, while a BJP lawyer dismisses an appeal for his release on the basis of electoral victory. This is justice in shining India.
And here is Khushwant Singh's appeal:
If you can’t remember who he is, let me jog your memory — and your conscience. He is the product of the Christian Medical College, Vellore where he was given the Paul Harrison Award in 2004 for being the most outstanding student. He could have set up a lucrative practice in any city.
However, he chose to train villagers in rural centres in Hoshangabad district of Madhya Pradesh, largely inhabited by tribals suffering from malnutrition, malaria and tuberculosis. He and his wife Iliana have been doing so for the last 30 years based in village Rasulia. He is the first Asian to be honoured by the Jonathan Mann Award in 2008 for his work in health and human rights.
He did not care to distinguish between ailing villagers on the basis of their political allegiances: Naxalites or Salwa Judum. If they were sick they had to be healed.
His clinic is named after Indira Gandhi. He was arrested on charges of treason for siding with the Naxalites. He has been in jail for 18 months. His bail application has been rejected. More than 20 Nobel Prize winners have appealed to our president to intervene on his behalf.
Dr Binayak Sen continues to languish in jail. It is a slap on the face of Bharat Mata. Raise your voice against the miscarriage of justice: Write to the president, prime minister, home minister, L.K. Advani or Rajnath Singh (Chattisgarh is ruled by the BJP) to release him and allow him to resume his noble mission in life.
The irony of the last sentence is that the names he mentions are leaders of the very party that seems to have taken a decision NOT to release Binayak. This is apparent from the remarks by Raman Singh and Ravi Shankar Prasad quoted by Sitapati. I suppose this means they intend to let "justice" take its own course. I will not be surprised if a political calculation has already been made that will keep him in prison indefinitely. With the BJP electoral victory in Chhattisgarh, and the general climate of opinion post-Mumbai, the BJP may have decided for now that releasing Binayak would send a signal of being soft on terrorism, even if it is obvious that Binayak is not connected with terrorism at all. This means that the only hope now lies in changing the climate of opinion so that the BJP feels it's not risking too much by releasing him. This can only be done by a more active media and by greater publicity for his cause.
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