Dr. Binayak Sen could have had a promising career as a paediatrician in any modern hospital in the new "rising" India. After all he was a gold medallist from the prestigious Christian Medical College (CMC) in Vellore. But as he walked the slums of Vellore, he realized that there was more to medicine than a comfortable career. Instead, he went on to study social medicine at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi, and ended up moving to southern Chhattisgarh in 1981.

There, in the iron ore and dolomite mines surrounding the Bhilai Steel Plant, the pioneering trade union leader, Shankar Guha Niyogi, was building not only a labour union, Chhattisgarh Mines Shramik Sangh (CMSS), but also a social movement among 30,000 mostly-Adivasi mine workers (Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha). With the Bhilai Steel Plant refusing to provide health care to mine workers, Niyogi recognized that it was left to the union to fill the need and expand its base of support. Binayak Sen joined him, along with Dr. Ashish Kundu and Dr. Saibal Jana, in a makeshift clinic operating in a shed carved out of the side of the union office in Dalli Rajhara in Durg District.

I first met them in the spring of 1983, only to find them working with the barest of medical equipment and supplies. The queues and days were long, but the doctors were unquestionably dedicated to serving the poor and to advancing the trade union and social movements of CMSS and CMM. Shaheed Hospital was not yet built, for its foundation was just being laid, but there was a tremendous sense of hopeful expectation in the air among miners and doctors alike.

But even in those days, there was also a climate of fear. Four mine workers had been shot earlier by police during a strike action at the railway junction in nearby Rajnandgaon. Central Bureau of Intelligence (CBI) agents periodically dropped in to find out who was coming and going. Niyogi himself lived with his wife, Asha, and three children in an unmarked house buried deep in the workers' housing colony in Dalli Rajhara. The house he lived in was a strictly-kept secret to outsiders because there had been many death threats, and Niyogi feared that an assassin would one day attack him in his sleep. Tragically, on 28 September 1991 that is exactly what happened.

On 14 May 2007, it was Dr. Binayak Sen's turn to disappear. Police arrested him, charging him with sedition, criminal conspiracy, making war against the country, and knowingly conveying the "proceeds of terrorism." He was charged under draconian state and central laws -- the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act (CSPSA) of 2006 and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) of 1967. Since then three courts have denied him bail, including the Supreme Court on 10 December 2007. Additional Solicitor General of India, Gopal Subramaniam, alleged that Dr. Sen was a key figure in a Naxalite "network of terrorism."

The reality was that Dr. Sen was providing medical care to an elderly Naxalite leader, Narayan Sanyal, in Raipur Jail. Under constant supervision of jail authorities, there was no possibility that Sen could have engaged in any "terrorist" activities with Sanyal. Sen became involved when Sanyal's family contacted Sen, as state general secretary of the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) in Chhattisgarh, asking for legal and medical help for Sanyal.

The charges against Binayak Sen were a pretext for silencing him because of his and PUCL's investigations revealing rampant human rights violations and atrocities by police and government-supported vigilantes. Salwa Judum is a vigilante movement sponsored and armed by the government in southern Chhattisgarh since June 2005. It was created in an attempt to counter the Maoist insurgency that has taken over the entire Bastar-Dantewada region because of either the government's utter neglect of social services or callous land-grabs by private corporations. The militarization of the region and the presence of the Salwa Judum have triggered a near civil war that has cleansed more than 600 villages, displacing more than one lakh (100,000) people from their homes.

On 25 October 2004, CMC awarded Binayak Sen its pretigious Paul Harrison Award, saying, "Dr Binayak Sen has carried his dedication to truth and service to the very frontline of the battle. He has broken the mould, redefined the possible role of the doctor in a broken and unjust society, holding the cause much more precious than personal safety. CMC is proud to be associated with Binayak Sen." And on 21 April 2008, Binayak Sen was awarded in absentia one of the highest international honours in health and human rights, the Jonathan Mann Award.

Worldwide coordinated protest actions marked one full year of imprisonment for Dr. Binayak Sen on fabricated charges under India's notorious "Black Laws." The demonstration by many concerned organizations and individuals, including Friends of South Asia (FOSA), Association for India's Development (AID), Amnesty International, ANSWER Coalition, and the San Jose Peace and Justice Centre, was held on 13 May 2008 in front of the Consulate General of India in San Francisco. Participants signed a petition demanding Binayak Sen's release, and presented it to Consul General B. S. Prakash. It was but one of many protests held at Indian embassies and consulates and around the world.

See:  http://www.aidboston.org/FreeBinayakSen/appeal.htm