Yesterday, early afternoon, I received an sms from my sister who lives in Delhi: Supreme Court grants bail to Binayak Sen. I was at Dhanbad / Bokaro standing by River Damodar reviewing construction works of an upcoming water intake system of a steel plant. To put it simply I was delighted reading the sms; I took a break from the review and smoked 2 cigarettes back to back. I immediately shared the news with my colleagues. They were happy too. I was very worried since the day the Supreme Court had adjourned the bail hearing; the Chattisgarh government did not file their reply on time. I was very tense since yesterday morning about the outcome; we had had a brief speculative discussion about the outcome at the breakfast table where I was staying. It was a great relief to learn that the short term anxieties of Dr. Ilina Sen, Dr. Sen's 84 year old mother and his daughter had come to an end.
3 things:
3 things:
- This intervention by the Supreme Court is likely to bring greater focus to revision of outdated sedition laws.
- How perverse is the Chattisgarh government? Ram Jethmalani, a BJP politician and a political comrade (on a wider scale) of this government, ended up fighting Dr. Sen's case in the Supreme Court for the injustice had reached a level where even he - a seasoned and first-rate criminal lawyer that he is - could not stand its moral burden.
- The difference between movements surrounding activists Anna Hazare and Dr. Sen is: one is conducted on a large stage almost similar to a grand concert in full view of the media and the elite while the other happens trapped inside the suffocating darkness of our jungles and tribal backyards.
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