Hindustan Times

To: All the Democratically Concerned People of Tamil Nadu, India and the World

Respected Friend, Madem/Sir:

Sub: False Charges filed on me to curtail my professional and democratic duty to warn the people I am serving about the ill effects of the nuclear radiation around the Kalpakkam Nuclear Power Plant

I am a medical doctor practicing in Sadras village near the Kalpakkam Nuclear Power Plant in Tamil Nadu, India, since 1989. I was a gold medalist during my undergraduate years at Madurai Medical College, but chose not to pursue higher education because I felt I should work among the poor masses in the villages. I chose Sadras as the place for my practice since I had many friends at Kalpakkam, who happened to work in the Kalpaakam Nuclear Power Plant.

From 1989 to 2000, my professional work was focused principally on serving the Dalit and the Fisher folks. My interests were in Primary Heath Care and I had devised many innovative cost efficient methods to treat the most prevalent diseases among the masses. I had written profusely about these methods in many journals and have published books highlighting these. My work was recognised by the local and national media and they had interviewed me many a times with regard to this. The noted magazine “Outlook” had published an exclusive article about me on 21 June 2004. I was even fondly nicknamed as “One Rupee Doctor” by many magazines that had interview me. I had started a small health awareness movement called Makkal Nala Vazhvu Pani Iyakkam (Forum for People’s Good Life) and had opened a clinic at Vayalur exclusively for this purpose among its Dalit populace. Impressed by my work, former Justice of the Supreme Court Shri.D.K.Basu came unannounced to grace this occasion. (1)

It was during these first 10 years of my professional work I have understood that the chances of the people living around this Nuclear Power Plant to succumb to genetic diseases and various types of cancers was far higher than other places where nuclear power plants are not present. I decided to study this systematically. I got the first opportunity when my colleague Dr.R.Ramesh of Coimbatore asked me whether I could help in conducting a survey on the incidence of Polydactyly ( people with more than 5 fingers/toes in each hand or foot) in this region. This was early 2001 and was related to the public hearing process for the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor scheduled to be held on 27 July 2001. (2)  The survey showed a very high incidence and this made me plunge into studying the effects of radiation among the local populace. I have not looked back ever since and have conducted many a health surveys since. I have remained a whistle blower who have ardently asked the Nuclear Power Plant authorities to follow nationally and internationally accepted safety codes. (3) Appreciating my work, I have been asked to become the technical and medical consultant to a group of concerned local citizens on the ill effects of radiation. This group called “ Anuk Kathirveechu Paathukaappukkaana Makkal Iyakkam” (Peoples Movement for Protection Against Nuclear Radiation)” is to conduct a protest on 12 November 2011 against the breech of nationally and internationally laid safety codes by the authorities of the Kalpakkam Nuclear Power Plant. Their contention has valid scientific proofs. People belonging to this movement are working for the past one month to make this protest a successful one.

It is in this background, I received a telephone call at 6 PM on 1 December 2011 from the Puthupattinam police station. The police inspector Mr.Siva Kumar, told me that the Puthupattinam Panchayat Chief had filed a petition against me and whether I could go to the Police Station for an enquiry in this regard. I was busy in my clinic and told him once my works were over I would meet him at the station. I went to the police station at 7.30 PM. I was asked to wait. The police inspector then telephoned the panchayat chief. He arrived at the station by 8..10 PM. The enquiry lasted for about 30 minutes. I left the place by 8.50 PM.

The police inspector narrated the charges filed against me by Mr.Kaliaperumal :

1.Mr.Kaliyaperumal, the Panchayat Chief of Puthupattinam village has filed a petition against me and one Mr.Nehru. He is charging us both that we had threatened to murder him if he does not cooperate with out anti nuclear work.

2.The alleged threat was sent to him in the form of an anonymous letter, which he said was penned by Mr.Nehru under my direction.

3.An SMS to his mobile phone from an unknown mobile phone number had also threatened to murder him. This is also alleged to have been sent by someone close to me under my directions.

4.Many SMS notes keep coming to his mobile phone from unknown numbers abusing him. He believes that all these SMS notes are sent to him under my directions.
I gave the following replies to the police inspector with respect to the above charges:

1) I do not involve myself in any anti nuclear work. I am only discharging my professional service by telling everyone about the findings culled from my two decade long work and critical studies related to health and nuclear radiation in general and Kalpakkam Nuclear Power Plant in particular. I am not an organiser of any anti nuclear movement but am and will remain a technical and medical consultant of such movements. Recently I have been asked by People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy that spearheads people’s agitation against Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project, to share my professional experiences as one of its panel of experts. Like this, I have shared my experiences and studies with people all around the country.

I have met the Panchayat Chief Mr.Kaliaperumal on various occasions. I have even congratulated him on the day he had won the local election. I have talked to him cordially always. I have explained to him as I explain to everyone I meet, about the issue of nuclear radiation around. As I work as a medical professional and not as a political organiser, where does the question of me threatening him to join my work? My work is to treat, study and share. Where does his charge fit in?

However, as you are asking me a particular question, I state here that I have not at any moment threatened Mr.Kaliaperumal to join an anti nuclear agitation.

2.I have nothing to do with the anonymous letter that threatens Mr.Kaliaperumal with death. I know Mr.Nehru, but under no circumstance he is working with me. The charge that Mr.Nehru wrote this letter under my influence is a concocted lie.

3.I have nothing to do with any of the SMS notes that are alleged to be received by Mr.Kaliaperumal.

As I finished with my reply, the police inspector said he has not filed the First Information Report. However, he asked me to give in writing that “I would be present at the police station whenever I am summoned by him for further enquiries. If I am not present for such enquiries, then I agree that the charges kept on me is true.” I told him what that would mean to my daily professional schedule. I explained to him how the poor patients who come to see me from miles afar would deeply suffer. However, he insisted that I should give this in writing. At last, as a good samaritan,I gave him in writing that whenever he summons me I would be present at the police station.

Once I gave him this written note, he told me in a very harsh warning voice: “ Doctor! Do you know that I can book you under national Security Act for whatever the works that you are doing? By the way…. Have you ever heard anything about “police encounter”? So, be careful.”

I remain baffled. However, there’s no way my professional and democratic work can be suspended by any force whatever.

I strongly suspect the hand of the authorities of the Kalpakkam Nuclear Power Plant behinnd all this. They are particularly disturbed by the facts I have recently published with respect to the safety codes being practiced by them. They are, I suspect, disturbed by a news that I am about to publish a book that is to question the various safety issues related with the power plant. I think, by intimidating me with such police threats, they believe that they will be able to make the Kalpakkam environment radiologically safe.

I have been open always for discussion with the authorities of the power plant. I have met them many a times and have always shared all the data available with me. However, they have, over the past 10 years have not tried to answer any of my questions in the earnest. Now, I suspect, that they have decided to opt other means to silence my work.

It is in this regard, I request all of you – my democratically minded brethren – to pray and voice for me and my family members.

Sincerely Yours

Dr.V.Pugazhenthi MBBS

Puthupattinam,

Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu, India

Protest Demonstration

Against Chhattisgarh Government and Police

Demand the Release of Soni Sodi and Lingaram Kodopi

Demand unfettered access to Journalists and Civil Society activists across the

conflict torn areas of Chhattisgarh

Demand the repeal of black laws like Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Ac

Speakers:

Shankar Subbu                     Sr.Adv, High Court of Madras

V Geetha                                Writer

A Marx                                   Human Rights Activist

Mangai                                   Theater activist

R Mohan                                Madras Union of Journalist

Tamilazhagan                        Journalist for Change

Date: 4th November 2011 (Friday)

Time: 4:30pm

Venue: Near Panagal Maaligai, Saidapet Bus Stand

Background:

Ever since the conflict between State forces and Maoist escalated in resource rich Chhattisgarh and the wider central Indian areas including West Bengal, Orissa, Jharkhand and parts of Bihar, the State has tried to black out information from these areas. The CRPF and State police in collusion with the State Governments have hounded out the civil society and journalists. While the incarceration of Dr Binayak Sen gained international coverage and the Supreme Court had to intervene twice to set him free, the travails of many a ‘not so well known’ voices have been brutally suppressed. Himanshu Kumar, a Gandhian was hounded out of Chhattisgarh and his ashram in Dantewada razed for being critical of state sponsored militia group-Salwa Judum; Advocate Amarnath falsely charged with abduction for filing case against powerful police officers for rape of a tribal woman named Ledha in police custody; and many others like Kopa Kunjam, Sodi Sambhu, Kartam Joga. Last month, the Chhattisgarh police falsely implicated Soni Sodi, a government school teacher and Linga Kodopi, her nephew and a budding journalist in a further attempt to gag all independent voices and flow of information from this conflict torn area. Journalists are targeted for bringing out uneasy truths and worse their local sources severely punished and threatened. A systematic campaign against freedom of expression and freedom of information has led to a black hole of information and accountability. In the darkness, State’s excesses atrocities against tribals and human rights violations have become the order of the day.

Binayak Sen, Himanshu Kumar or Lingaram Kodopi and Soni Sori have not resorted to violence. They have only exercised their democratic right to express their opinion. They have only tried to make this republic more transparent and accountable. Under the garb of fighting Maoists, the State is systematically destroying democratic voices so that the adivasis are forced to move and their mineral rich lands are sold off to mining corporations.

We invite you join this protest and demand

1. The immediate release of Soni Sodi and Lingaram Kodopi and transferring of their cases to courts that can guarantee fair trail.

2. Independent investigation into the accusations against police of use of torture methods and framing of false charges in an attempt to silence dissenting voices.

3. The unfettered access to journalist and civil society activists across the conflict torn areas.

4. Repeal of anti democratic legislations like Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act

2005 that incarcerate innocent people without proper trail.

Campaign for Justice and Peace-Tamil Nadu

C/o H 16/9 Seevakan Street, Kalakshetra Colony, Chennai 600 090

  Despite a Delhi High Court directive to the Chhattisgarh police to ensure  the   safety of the jailed adivasi teacher who had apprehended custodial torture, Soni Sori has alleged that in clear violation of the Court’s order, the Dantewada SP gave her electric shocks, underdressed her and tortured her on the night of October 8. In a letter addressed to the Supreme Court, and received by a social activist in Delhi today, Sori has described the torture to which she was subjected by the Superintendent of Police, Ankit Garg, and has demanded to know who is responsible for her condition.

On the night of 8.10.2011, from 12 midnight to 2:30 am, SP Ankit Garg called me into a room in the police station, gave me electric shocks (current shock), took my clothes off and severely tortured me. Why has no action been taken against him? Sori has asked in the letter in Hindi, a scanned copy of which is attached herewith. Sori, whose case is currently being heard in Delhi, has written this letter on a small scrap of paper and asks the apex court five incisive questions.

Describing herself as a suffering adivasi women who is also a daughter and sister of this country, she asks the Court to tell her who is responsible for the brutal custodial torture to which she has been subjected by the police in Chhattisgarh. It may be recalled that Soni Sori had apprehended this physical torture when she was picked up by the police in Delhi, and had moved the Sessions court and the High Court in Delhi to oppose her remand to the custody of Chhattisgarh police. Keeping her fears in mind, the Saket Court in Delhi had awarded her custody to the Chhattisgarh police only upon receiving their assurance of her safety. The Delhi High Court also asked the Chhattisgarh police to submit a report listing out steps to ensure Soni’s safety.

However, as Soni points out in this recent letter, despite these safeguards and the assurance given to her by the Saket Court, she was tortured brutally, both mentally and physically, by the Chhattisgarh police. Why did the police do this to me, why was this allowed to happen? Soni asks the Supreme Court in this letter. Describing her police harassment over the past year and a half, she writes about how the police kept showing her as an absconder in half a dozen cases, even though she was meeting with them, going to the police station and regularly attending her job as an ashram school teacher, as evidenced by the entries of the school attendance register. Why did the police not arrest me at that time? asks Soni in this letter. Referring to the most recent case, in which the police alleges that Soni has acted as an intermediary between Essar and the Naxalites, she claims that she was asked by a police constable Mankar to flee from the place, which has made her into a criminal.

In the letter, Soni asks the apex court why no action has been taken against the erring police constable. Soni also refers to the fact that she was kept chained to her hospital bed when she was undergoing treatment for her injuries due to custodial torture in the Raipur hospital,which is explicitly prohibited under Supreme Court orders. At the end of the short letter which lists these five questions, Soni plaintively asks the court, Who is responsible for my condition? The Chhattisgarh government or the police administration? Soni affirms in the letter that she is still on hunger strike since she has still not obtained justice. Social activist Himanshu Kumar says that this letter will be delivered to the Supreme Court once it reopens on Monday and notes,These questions which Soni is raising are important not only for her, but for all of us in this country. We must be prepared to face these questions and ensure that our democracy is strong enough to answer them.

For more information contact: Himanshu Kumar ph: 9013886571 email: vcadantewada@ gmail.com

Letter for the Supreme Court

1. Why are my feet chained?

2. Mankar constable is the culprit in the Essar case. He made me into a criminal by asking me to abscond. Why is there no action taken against him on this?

3. For a year and a half, the police have been harassing me by lodging false cases against me. I used to openly come and go in front of the police force. I was called at the police station many times, and I used to go there. Why did they not arrest me at that time? For no reason, they declared me as an absconder, even though I was regularly doing my service at the ashram school at that time.

4. I was brought here from the Saket Court in Delhi by promising that there would be no physical or mental torture, and I believed this to be the order of the court and came here. Then why did the police do this to me (torture me), why was this allowed to happen?

5. On the night of 8.10.2011, from 12 midnight to 2:30 am, SP Ankit Garg called me into a room in the police station, gave me electric shocks (current shock), took my clothes off and severely tortured me. Why has no action been taken against him? Today, who bears the responsibility for my condition? The government of Chhattisgarh or the police administration? I am a suffering adivasi woman and I want to the Supreme Court to answer my question. I am also a daughter and sister of this country. Why did this happen to me? This is why I have not yet broken my hunger strike.

Applicant Mrs. Soni Sori Central Jail, Jagdalpur

To
The Trustees of The Gandhi Foundation, London.
Dear Friends,
Ilina and I appreciate deeply the solidarity and support extended by so many friends from the United Kingdom and across the world in the course of my trial and incarceration. We were looking forward to meeting at least a few of you in the course of our proposed visit to the United Kingdom in November.
The original citation of the Gandhi International Peace Award when it came, was a surprise, as I on my own had never claimed to be a representative of the tribal people of India. However, I had always proudly claimed the heritage of a vernacular and indigenous life-world that was egalitarian and sustainable, and since the awarding body was free to make its own ascription, I humbly accepted the responsibility being put on me. I was fully aware that there could be many views about my fitness to undertake such a task, but it never occurred to me that my ethnic identity, in that I was not ethnically a member of the tribal people of India, would stand in my way.
To my understanding, the ethnic indigenous people of the world have suffered terrible violence in the course of the development of the capitalist state, a violence that has been directed equally against all colonized people, the working class, and other subaltern sections. Efforts to build a new society must be made by all oppressed people together. To claim to take on board the politics of genetic ethnicity as a part of this effort is a form of racism, and racism never smelt sweeter merely because it was articulated from the platform of a subaltern identity.
What we are confronting throughout India today is widespread hunger, compounded by widespread displacement, to the extent that it constitutes a stable famine spread over large parts of the country and over large sections of its people. Access to appropriate health care remains a dream for all except a privileged minority. The penetration of global capital into resource rich ‘undeveloped’ regions, and the operation of industrial and mining interests in these areas have been responsible for this displacement and disenfranchisement of communities. State policies in countries like ours are aiding rather than curbing these processes. Urgent measures are needed to combat this hunger, stop this displacement and ensure equity, human rights, and social justice. However, voices of dissent are deliberately suppressed through outdated laws and juridical processes, and thousands of citizens languish in prison for opposition to these policies.
In the context of the award, the changed citation has only led to further contention and acrimony. Unfortunately, the process of nomination, the thinking behind the original citation and that behind the second, were never made public by the Gandhi Foundation. If the first citation was problematic, the second was even more so, as in this, the “Tribal People of India’ of the first citation did not find any mention at all. This was not a position in which I could afford to be complicit. The level of debate is now such that the paramount issues outlined above threaten to be replaced by a palimpsest of ethnic fundamentalism. Under the circumstances, the really important task of delineating and combating the tragedy being enacted before our eyes gets pushed to the background.
Accordingly, I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that at the present juncture it will not be appropriate for me to receive this award. My thanks go to those who nominated and to those who selected me for this award. It was never my intention to give offence or show disrespect to any of the parties in this controversy. I greatly regret any inconvenience that the organisers may be put to as a result of my decision.

Yours sincerely,
Binayak Sen

RELEASE BINAYAK SEN CAMPAIGN, UK
When a member of the Release Binayak Sen Now Campaign in the UK nominated Dr. Binayak Sen in April 2011 for the International Gandhi Peace Award in 2011 after consultation with other Campaign members, Dr. Sen was in indeterminate custody sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of sedition under India’s draconian anti-terrorism legislation. The Campaign wished to draw British and international attention to Dr. Sen’s work and plight. Therefore, the letter nominating him put forward the following case:

A paediatrician by training, Dr. Sen specializes in public health and has devoted his life’s work to extending health care to India’s poorest people through monitoring the health and nutritional status of the people of Chhattisgarh, one of the economically-deprived and neglected regions of India.

…As Vice-President of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties, Dr. Sen has been at the forefront of peaceful campaigns for social justice and strongly critical of the Indian state for human rights violations in the course its ongoing war on Maoist rebels. Although he has been controversially incarcerated by the Indian state on charges of assisting these rebels (he is regarded by Amnesty International as a ‘prisoner of conscience’), he has always been an outspoken public advocate for non-violent activism towards social transformation.

…Given his explicit commitment to non-violence and his sustained peaceful activism in obtaining health care and human rights for the most deprived sections of society, particularly the rural poor, Dr. Binayak Sen is an exemplary candidate for the Gandhi Foundation award [which would] acknowledge the singular contribution made by this dedicated and courageous individual towards bringing together health, food security, the empowerment of women and economic enfranchisement in the cause of the widest and most meaningful deployment of both human rights and social justice.

The successful nomination made no mention of the ‘Tribal Peoples’ or the ‘adivasis of India,’ a monolithic category which the Gandhi Foundation later and without due consultation inserted into its citation, suggesting that Dr. Sen and Mr. Bulu Imam would jointly receive the award on ‘behalf’ of the adivasis of India. After justifiable protest and representations by some adivasi activists, the Foundation changed the wording to ‘two men who have worked in different ways to address the growing violence.’

We wish to make clear that our support for the award of the Prize to Dr.Binayak Sen was in recognition of his exemplary courage and commitment to the cause of fighting rural poverty and the depredations of corporate globalisation and not because we see him as an adivasi advocate.We recognise that Dr. Sen’s work in health and human rights has been undertaken alongside adivasis in the adivasis region of India. We also recognise that there are a great many activists in adivasi causes who are themselves adivasi and who very fully articulate the rights of the indigenous peoples of India. We greatly regret that the Gandhi Foundation’s original mistake has created such a controversy around an award which rightly recognises the extraordinary contributions of two exemplary individuals to the cause of India’s most impoverished, exploited and vulnerable peoples.

We nevertheless believe strongly that Dr. Sen and Mr Bulu Imam are entitled to recognition of their work, which includes their work alongside adivasis, and note that neither has ever claimed to speak for adivasis. While we deplore the ignorance that the Gandhi Foundation showed in their original citation and insist that the Foundation acknowledge its mistakes, we stand by our nomination of Dr. Sen and his receipt of the award along with Mr. Bulu Imam. We note that Dr. Sen has himself been a victim of draconian and anti-people legislation, the The Chattisgarh Special Public Security Act (CSPSA) and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (1967), that he and others, both adivasi and non-adivasi, have been struggling against. We urge Dr. Sen to accept the this award on the basis of his courageous human rights work for which he has met with punitive treatment from the State of Chattisgarh. Dr. Sen has never sought publicity or celebrity status for himself, but the award would attest to the continuing need to bear witness to and struggle for radical change in the conditions of adivasi, dalit and other exploited communities which are continually threatened by displacement and subjugation by violent means at the hands of multinational corporations and the Indian state.

Himanshu Kumar

क्या आपकी कोई बेटी है ? चलो थोड़ी देर के लिए उसका नाम सोनी सोरी रख देते हैं !

उसे पुलिस वाले बाँध कर घसीट रहे हैं , और वो रोते रोते आपको पुकार रही है , पापा मुझे बचा लो ! आप खड़े होकर देख रहे हैं , आपकी मासूम लाडली बेटी को पुलिस वाले घसीटते हुए ले जा रहे हैं ! इस समय आप विवश होंगे या क्रोधित ? क्या करने का ख्याल आएगा आपके मन में ?

और उन्ही पलों में जब आपकी मासूम बेटी को पुलिस वाले घसीट रहे हैं , मैं उसी मनः स्तिथी में आपके विचार जानना चाहता हूँ , “भारतीय लोकतंत्र ” “संविधान” , “महान भारतीय संस्कृतिक परम्पराओं” के बारे में ? चेहरा उधर मत घुमाइए ! मुझसे आँख मिला कर उत्तर दीजिये ! आपकी बेटी अभी भी चीख कर आपकी ओर आशा से देख रही है ! और आप उसकी चीखों का जवाब नहीं दे रहे हैं ? सोनी सोरी की चीखें इतिहास हो जायेंगी ! पर हमारा पीछा नहीं छोड़ेंगी !

हमें माफ़ कर देना सोनी सोरी , हमारा लोकतंत्र तुम्हारे लिए नहीं है , न संसद , न हमारी दिखावटी नैतिकता और धार्मिकता , ये सब हमारे लिए हैं ! तुम आदिवासी हो , इसलिए तुम्हारे लिए है ,पिटाई , खुरदुरी ज़मीन पर पशु की तरह घसीटे जाना , ज़िंदगी भर जेल में बैठकर ,अपने तीन बच्चों को याद कर रोना , और फिर एक दिन चुपचाप एक गुमनाम मौत म़र जाना !

“सोनी सोरी मेरी बच्ची” मैं तुम्हे भारतीय राष्ट्र की ओर से अंतिम विदाई देता हूँ ! आदिवासियों के सम्पूर्ण संहार के बाद जब हमारा प्रधान मंत्री, लाल किले से इस एतिहासिक अपराध के लिए क्षमा मांगेगा , तब तुम हमें स्वर्ग से क्षमा कर देना ,सोनी सोरी ! अलविदा अलविदा

At the outset, I would like to thank the New York Academy of Sciences for conferring on me the prestigious Heinz R. Pagels Award for Human Rights.   I wish it were possible for me to be with you in person on this occasion.  Besides my gratitude for this great honour, I also have a personal reason to celebrate a connection with the Academy.  My father was a pharmacologist whose research was on melanocyte stimulating hormone.  He worked in the Medical Corps of the Indian Army and taught for some time at the Armed Forces Medical College in Pune, India.  He was offered membership in the Academy, but had to decline because, as an officer of the Indian Army, he was not permitted to accept membership in a foreign organization.  So this Award is, in some ways, a celebration of an older connection.

Of course, I never had the privilege of crossing paths with Professor Pagels.  I am not a physicist, but if you will pardon me the audacity of seeking parallels between his work and mine, I might focus on his dedication to increase popular understanding of the importance and complexity of physics and of science in general.   As a paediatrician and public health physician, I have tried to enhance the public’s understanding of the ways in which poverty and injustice undermine efforts to promote health and peace, which we ourselves take for granted as our own fundamental human rights.

Another parallel between us might be that we both married well.   My own work would not have been possible without the patience and support of my wife Professor Ilina Sen, an eminent feminist scholar and peace activist in her own right, who herself is an admirer of  Professor Elaine Pagels‘ work on the perception of women in society.

The support of my professional colleagues, and of the academic community across the world, has been invaluable in securing my freedom. The Committee on Human Rights of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine, which serves also as the Secretariat for the International Human Rights Network of Academies and Scholarly Societies, arranged to pay me a visit while I was still in jail. Professor Robert Curl (Nobel Laureate in Chemistry), Professor Arjuna  Aluwihare (President of the Sri Lankan Academy of Sciences),  and Ms. Carol Corillon,  actually travelled to India and visited me in jail. This was a cherished occasion, although only Professor Curl was allowed to actually speak to me. The letters and postcards my scientist colleagues wrote to me while I was in jail are also treasured memories.   I know also that 48 Nobel Laureates across the world appealed for my release, including Professor Torsten Wiesel whom I have to especially thank for nominating me for today’s Award.  Then as now, I was personally dumbfounded and humbled by this groundswell of support, which I can only attribute to shared recognition of our common cause of human rights.

One of the many intellectuals who graciously spoke out on my behalf is our exemplar, Professor Noam Chomsky.  Chomsky tells us that intellectuals have an obligation to speak truth to power. Throughout history, members of the community of scholars have attempted to publicly speak the truth, and faced state action as a result. The example of Galileo springs most readily to mind, and the poet Osip Mandelstam with his indictment of ‘the Kremlin mountain man,’ is also part of our collective consciousness.    Likewise, it is appropriate to mention the examples of Andrei Sakharov and of Liu Xiaobo, who even today continues to languish in jail.

My fellow awardee today, Professor Jack Minker, has a distinguished record of working for the rights of fellow scientists in difficult situations.  Professor Minker, my congratulations to you on this well-deserved recognition of your own contributions to human rights.

I have lived and worked for three decades in the region of India called Chhattisgarh.  The Chhattisgarh chapter of the Peoples’ Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), of which I was the General Secretary in 2005, organized and led an investigation  into the phenomenon known as the Salwa Judum.  Our state government insistently described it as a spontaneous peoples’ uprising in response to Maoist violence in their communities.   To the contrary, we discovered that the Salwa Judum was a state-sponsored and state-funded vigilante force that had forcibly displaced the Adivasis, or indigenous residents, of more than 600 villages, and herded them into refugee camps by the roadside. Thousands of people had fled these excesses and crossed the state borders into the neighboring state of Andhra Pradesh, where they struggled to survive and eke out a livelihood. Our report was entitled ‘When the State Makes War on its Own People’.

Professor Nandini Sundar, a member of our original investigating group, and others went on to challenge the entire process of Salwa Judum in the Supreme Court of India.  In a landmark judgment of the Supreme Court, delivered on July 5 of this year, the Salwa Judum and its operations were held to be unconstitutional. The Court ordered the immediate disarming and disbandment of the so-called Special Police Officers, and subjected the state government to severe strictures. But meanwhile, in the course of these events, about 500 extra-judicial murders have taken place, many women have been raped, and uncounted cases of arson have been inflicted on some of the poorest people in India.

India is home to a sixth of mankind.   At a time when the advanced nations of the world are caught in an economic freeze, India has an annual GDP growth of over 8%. But we also have the largest concentration of chronically undernourished people in the world.  As a paediatrician, I must draw your attention to some alarming statistics.  Around 23% of our newborns are born with low birth weight, 47% of our children below the age of five are undernourished by weight-for-age criteria, and 37 % of our adults have a body mass index (BMI) of less than 18.5, signifying chronic undernutrition. These data indicate a state of stable famine, in which major subsets of the population are actually living under famine conditions. These sections of the population have thus far been able to survive because of their access to common property resources, such as the public forest lands on which the indigenous Adivasi people have lived for generations.   Unfortunately for the Adivasis of Chhattisgarh, the earth below their fertile and biodiverse ancestral forests is also rich in minerals.  Therefore, today, these sections of the populations are, as a matter of state policy, seeing their rights and access to common property resources expropriated  and handed over to corporate interests for industrial mining and manufacturing.

Resistance to this process is crucial to the survival of these communities.  Sadly, instead of seeking long-term solutions to issues of entitlements and community rights, the state’s response has been to interpret dissent and criticism as  “Sedition,”  as defined by a jurisprudence that harks back to the days when India was a British colony.  I myself, and thousands of others whose voices remain unheard, have been victims of this phenomenon.  The People’s Union for Civil Liberties, which I still have the honour to represent, is now engaged in an all-India, nationwide campaign to repeal the Sedition clauses from our law books, and is in the process of collecting a million signatures to be presented to the Indian Parliament during its upcoming winter session.

Why do I share here the experiences of faraway Chhattisgarh and the indigenous people of my country?  Because international solidarity, in the recognition of rights and entitlements, is invaluable and crucial. The inequality and polarization of the kind I have just described represent a worldwide  phenomenon which we must oppose collectively on a worldwide platform.  I believe that democracy , justice, and equity are fundamental rights of every citizen of the world.  In the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. “

And as Heinz Pagels himself said, in a different context, “you never learn anything unless you are willing to take a risk and tolerate a little randomness in your life.”

Dr Binayak Sen, the well-known humanitarian doctor and right activist has won the  prestigious 2011 Heinz R. Pagels Human Rights of Scientist Award by the New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS).

The Award was received by a representative of Dr Sen in New York on 22 September as he was unable to travel to the United States to receive it. The other awardee of this prize, given to scientists doing human rights work, was Jack Minker, Professor Emeritus, Department of Computer Science, University of Maryland.

In his acceptance speech Dr Sen said “The support of my professional colleagues, and of the academic community across the world, has been invaluable in securing my freedom.” Apart from the 48 Nobel Prize winners who signed a statement calling for his release Dr Sen recollected that while in Raipur prison he was personally visited by a delegation of leading scientists, including Professor Robert Curl, winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1996.

“ Then as now, I was personally dumbfounded and humbled by this groundswell of support, which I can only attribute to shared recognition of our common cause of human rights” he said in his speech.

Regarding his own work in Chhattisgarh Dr Sen said that “As a paediatrician and public health physician, I have tried to enhance the public’s understanding of the ways in which poverty and injustice undermine efforts to promote health and peace, which we ourselves take for granted as our own fundamental human rights”

The NYAS’s Committee on the Human Rights of Scientists was created in 1978 to support and promote the human rights of scientists, health professionals, engineers and educators around the world. The committee focuses on rights of scientists who have been detained, imprisoned, exiled, or deprived of the rights to pursue science, communicate their findings to their peers and the general public, and travel freely.

The Academy annually honors scientists for their contributions in this area with the Heinz R. Pagels Human Rights of Scientists Award. Heinz Rudolf Pagels (February 19, 1939 – July 23, 1988) was professor of physics at Rockefeller University, the executive director of the New York Academy of Sciences, and president of the International League for Human Rights. He is best known to the general public for his popular science books The Cosmic Code (1982), Perfect Symmetry (1985), and The Dreams of Reason: The Computer and the Rise of the Sciences of Complexity (1988).

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:

DR ILINA SEN: PH- 09425206875 or SATYA SIVARAMAN: PH- 9818514952 (New Delhi)