Our state has once again proved the point that had come through Binayak Sen's conviction; actually it shouldn't come as a shock, since it has been doing so time and again. Ilina Sen, wife of Binayak Sen, was today booked for convening a global convention on women, in which those gathered condemned the absurd allegations against Bnayak Sen and activist Sudhir Dhawale, demanded their release and also demanded the removal of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. The charges against her ? That she had included foreigners in this meeting without informing the local police. Because the passports of said foreigners were with their hotel-manager and the manager of an ashram (where the foreigners were residing), the police arrested the managers. Their argument consists of two main points: firstly, the law decrees this event unlawful and enables them to make such arrests. Secondly, foreigners have no right to protest the govt. on the premises of a public institution - the Gandhi International Hindi University at Wardha, in this case.
So let's see what the govt. is saying: if you wish to protest, you must first comply with certain bureaucratic procedures that we have set in place. Inform the police, take due permissions, first clarify your stand to authorities, then go public with it. One would do well to remember the case of the motormen's strike in Mumbai, wherein a peaceful hunger-strike was forciby annulled citing "disruption of essential services". Also, because foreigners are foreigners, they do not have the right to democratic space in "our" country; they specially cannot protest within the confines of "public-institutions" - "public" in this case interpreted as the property of the govt. rather than as something that belongs to people. The message is very clear: toe the line, or else..... And that is the irony of it, because now the first step of protest and demonstration is necessarily compliance and seeking permission. And this is only a case wherein law has dealt relatively leniently with "offenders" - "leniency" here meaning just booking and arresting. The case of Binayak Sen and Sudhir Dhawale tells us that it could have been worse (and, ostensibly, for no reason at all).
- Pratik Ali
