Well we didnt have to look far on who is batting for the Maoists when this story from Tehelka surfaced in conversations, courtesy fellow bloggers on the Indian National Interest.
The story is about Dr. Binayak Sen from Raipur Chattisgarh who has been languishing in jails since May 2007 after being repeatedly denied bail from courts all the way up to the Supreme Court on charges of aiding Maoist Terrorists.
While the ethics of the extended detention are open to debate, the legality, it must be assumed is on sound grounds with even the Supreme Court denying bail as recently as Dec 2007.
This post is not about Binayak Sen or the ethics of his detention, we will leave that subject to fellow bloggers to address. This post is about Tehelka’s Half Truths in the story on Binayak Sen that goes to show how Tehelka is one of many above the ground closet communist outfits that have been batting for the Maoists.
The story of Binayak Sen hinges on the arrest of one Narayan Sanyal who also goes by the name Prasad and Bijoy. For those like this blogger who dont know who Narayan Sanyal is there is a long history of some infame. This story that appeared in The Hindu on the eve of his arrest in Bhadrachalam by Andhra Police covers some of the infamy.
The 68-year-old naxalite leader was one of the members of the CPI (Maoist) Polit Bureau and its central committee and chief of its central-eastern regional bureau monitoring the political affairs in Orissa and Chhattisgarh.
He was the schemer of the PW attack on former Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu at Alipiri in Tirupati in October 2003 and the Jehananabad jail break that resulted in liberation of 340 prisoners, including several Maoist activists, in November 2005
He was involved in as many as 21 serious cases of Maoist-sponsored violence in different eastern States, including the attack on the Police Superintendent’s convoy in Bastar in January 2005. He was also involved in the attack on the police headqarters in Korraput in Orissa in February 2004.
Thats not all Sanyal’s antecedents go back to when it all started.
Sanyal was an ideologue of the party and one of the leaders closely associated with the Naxalbari movement, had worked under Charu Majumdar and was instrumental in spreading the party in different states. He joined the party while working as a bank employee in Siliguri in West Bengal in 1966. He was in jail for five years after his arrest at Ranchi in 1972. He joined the underground cadres of the party after coming out on bail in 1977.
So here you have the most prominent figure in the Maoist Terrorist movement. The Government’s case against Binayak Sen rests on links with Sanyal.
So coming back to the Tehelka story, the usual suspects Shoma Choudhary and co. start the piece with typical Tehelka style shock and awe to overwhelm you with guilt laced with outrage against the State. To do that they paint a humanist picture of Binayak Sen going to great lengths about his Medical accomplishments. But then they conveniently forget to chronicle the extensive activism of Binayak Sen as a full time National Executive member of the PUCL, another above the ground front packed with known apologists for the Maoists and a few closet communists. In fact the first reference to Binayak Sen’s PUCL role occurs a full 10 paragraphs after we have been overwhelmed with details on the noble person he is. That too was a passing reference with no details on who Binayak Sen batted for as?PUCL activist.
Be that as it may, the Tehelka story then goes on to chronicle how Sanyal is arrested in January of 2006 and how innocently he is introduced to Binayak Sen by Sanyal’s brother many months later.
In May 2006, Sanyal?s elder brother, Radhamadhab, who lived in Kol kata, wrote a letter to Binayak Sen, as the general secretary of PUCL (People?s Union for Civil Liberties), copied to other human rights organisations, asking for help in getting Sanyal a lawyer, as well as medical attention. As one of the most eminent human rights activists in the region, Binayak intervened.
Here is the problem with the Tehelka story. If Binayak Sen was first informed of Sanyal’s plight only in May on the need for medical attention how is it that Binayak Sen had this press release put out via the PUCL with his name and his e-mail address in December of 2005 alleging that Sanyal had disappeared from Raipur in Chattisgarh where he was for medical attention.
The Chhattissgarh PUCL has received today a letter from the Secretary, Chhattisgarh State Committee, CPI (Maoist).The letter says that a senior leader and member of the central committee of the CPI (Maoist) Mr. Bijoy alias Prasad who had come to Raipur for treatment ,has suddenly disappeared on the evening of 28.12.05.There is a strong possibility that he has been apprehended by the police and put under arrest?
The rest of the Tehelka story goes on to further debate the ethics of the case including Binayak’s activisim against Salwa Judum.
There is no mention ever of the press release by Binayak or any explanation given on why Sanyal’s brother would write a letter to Binayak in May of 2006 asking for medical and legal help when Binayak was already in the know on both the medical and legal issues in the days ahead of Sanyal’s arrest.
Offstumped Bottomline: As always Tehelka’s economy with truth is meant to shock and awe one into an outpouring of guilt while losing sight of facts.
By conveniently ignoring the press release put out by Binayak Sen on Narayan Sanyal days before his actual arrest Tehelka has attempted to put a smokescreen on Binayak Sen’s Maoist links.
By conveniently chronicling the sequence of events from May 2006 Tehelka has painted an innocent picture that brushes over tough questions.
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One is left wondering after all this – if the charges (and the evidence) against Binayak Sen is serious enough for the SC not to grant bail, why is the precise nature of these charges and evidence not publicized enough?
If the government doesn’t want to get directly involved, a few press leaks should do the trick.
In this “WORLD’S LARGEST DEMOCRACY” (in another sense this is GREAT also)the ‘Right to dissent’ is not fundamental right because our democracy is well follower of colonial rules setup by Britishers to RULE over indian peoples.
and now citizens like DR.Binayak sen is under charge of conspiracy and wage war against indian state. This is not so shameful because the real character of this so called democracy is still colonial and fudel in its originol character and the peopls like you are busy to donate ground for exploitative , imperialist supportar rulling class.
guilt of Dr. Bnayak is to expose this holly allies of Indian rulling class and lumepn capitalist from countyside and abroad.
Any comment on the case of Dr. binayak must have capacity to read the imagination of indian people’s heroic struggle against such oppressions.
If Shoma Choudhary dare to rise in support of Dr. Binayak then this is Half true in your words and then you have enough right to allege them with Terrorism also.
In this “WORLD’S LARGEST DEMOCRACY” (in another sense this is GREAT also)the ‘Right to dissent’ is not fundamental right because our democracy is well follower of colonial rules setup by Britishers to RULE over indian peoples.
and now citizens like DR.Binayak sen is under charge of conspiracy and wage war against indian state. This is not so shameful because the real character of this so called democracy is still colonial and fudel in its originol character and the peopls like you are busy to donate ground for exploitative , imperialist supportar rulling class.
guilt of Dr. Bnayak is to expose this holly allies of Indian rulling class and lumpen capitalist from countryside and abroad.
Any comment on the case of Dr. binayak must have capacity to read the imagination of indian people’s heroic struggle against such oppressions.
If Shoma Choudhary dare to rise in support of Dr. Binayak then this is Half truths in your words and then you have enough privilege to allege them linked with ‘Terrorism’
And i know well that you people have lots of allergy to read thinkers like Arundhati roy, Mahashweta devi. so in this “DARK AGE” of democracy your national intrest will be to save the intrest of corporate, comprodor capitalist class of India.
so you will propogate against the rational newspapers like TEHELKA.
In this “WORLD’S LARGEST DEMOCRACY” (in another sense this is GREAT also)the ‘Right to dissent’ is not fundamental right because our democracy is well follower of colonial rules setup by Britishers to RULE over indian peoples.
and now citizens like DR.Binayak sen is under charge of conspiracy and wage war against indian state. This is not so shameful because the real character of this so called democracy is still colonial and fudel in its original form and the people like you are busy to donate ground for exploitative , imperialist supportar rulling class.
guilt of Dr. Binayak is to expose this holly allies of Indian rulling class and lumpen capitalist from countryside and abroad to defend real democratic and secular character of our country.
Any comment on the case of Dr. binayak must have capacity to read the imagination of indian people’s heroic struggle against such oppressions.
If Shoma Choudhary dare to rise in support of Dr. Binayak then this is Half truths in your words and then you have enough privilege to allege them linked with ‘Terrorism’
And i know well that you people have lots of allergy to read thinkers like Arundhati roy, Mahashweta devi. so in this “DARK AGE” of democracy your national intrest will be to save the intrest of corporate, comprodor capitalist class of India.
so you will definately propogate against the rational newspapers like TEHELKA.
[...] there has been a controversy brewing for several months over the arrest of Dr Binayak Sen (see Offstumped’s coverage). The Supreme Court has turned down his bail application, yet sections of the media have been [...]
“Again, a moral nicety official India would find difficult to grasp. Take Medha Patkar: 20 years of peaceful resistance. No result. Take Sharmila Irom: 7 years of heroic fasting. No result. Take Binayak Sen…
Binayak Sen will soon be on trial. To continue his imprisonment during this period is to foreclose the space for peaceful protest in India. It is to nurture weapons of mass destruction. It is to invite violent conversations.”
Another one goes to justify terror against the state.
Communist hypocites talking about democracy.
Anil from TEHELKA
You should have been at the Tiananmen square on that fateful day.
Anil,
>>In this “WORLD’S LARGEST DEMOCRACY” (in another sense this is GREAT also)the ‘Right to dissent’ is not fundamental right
Kindly calm down and notice an important fact: Offstumped is dissenting with the half-truths put out by Tehelka, a commercial entity the financial outlay of which runs into crores of rupees obtained from rich people. Offstumped is dissenting with Naxalite propaganda, which is often enforced with the gun and thw bomb. He is dissenting with your idols like Arundhati Roy, who corner prime slots in corporate-owned publications like Outlook and Frontline.
In terms of power or privilege, neither offstumped nor his blog compare with the afore-mentioned entities in terms of their ability to hog attention for ‘dissent’.
Dissent is not a one-way street, nor do you and Naxals and Roy have a monopoly on it.
http://naxalwatch.blogspot.com/2008/03/batting-for-maoists-tehelka-and-its.html
@anil
Yossarin is being way too charitable by saying that tehelka is economical with the truth because Tehelka is a bunch of India-hating commies.
Naxal terrorism has gone way over the head by now. They have underground economy and overground “activists” to shill for them.
It is quite impressive how terrorists can overtake the state by sweet talking the public into inaction and stupor. Of course the inevitable end is totalitarianism as witnessed in China, Nepal, and who knows perhaps some states in India too.
I dont mean to distract the attention from the real topic of ths post but I could not help adding something to what socal said.
They have underground economy and overground “activists” to shill for them.
NSCN in Nagaland has been doing just that for decades now. Just see the huge swathes of territory where GoI doesnt exist.
Anil,
World’s Largest Democracy is also the weakest and supine most democracy. Else anti national forces like Naxalites, Marxists or fundamentalist Islamists would not have been allowed to capture all forums of intelligenstia, media and debate.
[...] you not familiar with the background on the series of blog posts on this subject, it started with this post by Offstumped followed by this one by Nitin and then this response from Binayak Sen’s friends and [...]
[...] all now know based on this post from Offstumped that the story began many months earlier when Dr. Binayak issued a press release on behalf of the [...]
Oh no yet another communazi bong Bionayak Sen pretending to be innocent while SC thinks otherwise..
what else is new
[...] the credibility of those at the forefront of Salwa Judum in tatters, it becomes all the more crucial for the BJP to make this election about Development and [...]
And what exactly are the links in “The Government’s case against Binayak Sen rests on links with Sanyal.”? Are providing medical and legal help, the right of every prisoner, even Ameer Qasab, the evidence of having links? As far as I understand, the Indian constitution guarantees that. At least such things are allowed in a “democracy”!