Bring law against lokdroh: Binayak Sen

Sen called for a law against “lokdroh — one who works against the interest of the common people and whose activities and policies harm the people of the country”.

“If you haven’t seen how a man who is convicted for sedition looks like, then here I am,” said Dr Binayak Sen, who was speaking at a convention organised by the All India People’s Forum here.

Sen was found guilty of sedition and conspiracy in 2010 by a lower court in Chhattisgarh for allegedly supporting the Naxalite movement and assisting Maoists in fighting the state.

“When the court awarded life imprisonment to me, the Chhattisgarh government said the sentence was not appropriate and appealed to the court to change it to death by hanging. When I applied for bail, I was given a 147-page order telling me why I cannot be granted bail. I had to approach the Supreme Court (which granted Sen the bail),” the 66-year-old said .

Endorsing the forum’s resolution demanding release of JNU’s students union president Kanhaiya Kumar, who has been arrested on charges of sedition, and resignations of Union ministers Smriti Irani and Bandaru Dattatreya in connection with the suicide of Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula, Sen called for a law against “lokdroh — one who works against the interest of the common people and whose activities and policies harm the people of the country”.

“Over the past few months, there has been a lot of discussion about deshdrohis and rashtradrohis. There are laws for ‘deshdroh’, ‘rashtradroh’ (sedition) but I think there should also be a law for lokdroh,” he said.

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