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group comprising over 25pro-democracy organisationsacross the country. Express-ing its outrage at the verdict,ICAN said the life sentencehanded out to Dr. Sen was a

miscarriage of justice at onelevel and emblematic ofgross inequity and usurpationof democracy at another.Treason and sedition are notmerely legal issues to be de-cided in the narrow confinesof a legal system, even if thatwerent so compromisedEven conceding the mostdamning accusations againsthim, how has he damaged theIndian State? Where is the

statement of intent? Com-pare this with the enormous,plainly visible, and egregiousassaults on the national in-terest in the form of variousscams that are going largelyunexamined, and, given thehistory, are likely to go en-

tirely unpunished if not ac-

tually rewarded!The signatories included

Aruna Roy and Nikhil Dey ofthe Mazdoor Kisan ShaktiSanghathan; Trilochan Shas-try of the Association forDemocratic Reform; H. Su-darshan of Karuna Trust,Karnataka; Ravi Chopra ofPeoples Science Institute,Uttarakhand; Arvind Kejri-wal of Parivartan; MadhuKishware of Manushi Sang-

hathan; S.P. Shukla of the In-dian Social Forum, Pune;Mamta Jaitley of VividhaFeatures, Rajasthan; YogeshShastri of Jeevan Vidya,Chhatisgarh; T.K. Ramkumarof Rejuvenate India Move-ment, Tamil Nadu; and Mou-

sumi Gogoi of Karuna Trus

Arunachal Pradesh.

Attack on dissent

The signatories said: Thwhole saga demonstrateamply how the various armof the state machinery routinely act in unconstitutionand illegal ways using unsanctioned power througunseen channels to crusdemocratic voices that arseen as impediments to the

personal or policy objetives. The umbrella networcalled upon citizens to comtogether regardless of ideoogy and to view the judgmenas an attack on dissent anan attempt to snuff out thdemocratic space.

NEW DELHI: Three days after aChhattisgarh court convictedBinayak Sen of treason andsedition, the sense of disbelief

seems to be growing, withmore and more members ofthe civil society joining in toprotest the judgment andurging fellow citizens to starta campaign for the release ofthe paediatrician and civilrights activist.

The voices were unani-mous in underlining the iron-ic distortions in the justicesystem the use of archaiclaws and police versions to

punish the poor at a time thecountry was witness to theunprecedented criminality ofthe powerful.

The first to get off theground on Monday was theIndian Community ActivistsNetwork (ICAN), an umbrella

Conviction sets a dangerous trend for judiciary

It has ominous undertones: All-India Milli Council

Vidya Subrahmaniam

Mounting outrage against Bina