'Binayak was victimised for speaking out'

Dr Ilina Sen, the wife of activist Binayak Sen, who was granted bail yesterday after two years in a Raipur jail, can finally breathe easy. In an interview with Daipayan Halder she says the Chhattisgarh government wrongly framed her husband.

Dr Ilina Sen, the wife of activist Binayak Sen, who was granted bail yesterday after two years in a Raipur jail, can finally breathe easy. In an interview with Daipayan Halder she says the Chhattisgarh government wrongly framed her husband.

For the past two years she has been shuttling between Wardha where she teaches Women's Studies at the Mahatma Gandhi University and Raipur, where her activist husband Dr Binayak Sen was jailed on charges of having links with Naxalites.
u00a0

The man in question: Dr Binayak Sen with tribal women in Chhattisgarh

She has spent nights without a wink talking to Sen's lawyers and well-wishers, going through his case files andworrying about his health.
u00a0
As the Supreme Court granted Sen bail on Monday, a relievedDr Ilina Sen says that she and her husband will continue to fight for the deprived and the downtrodden.

It's been a long, hard fight for you. Now that your husband Binayak Sen has finally been granted bail how does it feel?
It's a great, great relief. I always had faith in the judiciary. My husband was framed by the Chhattisgarh government. He is accused of carrying letters to and from Narayan Sanyal, an ailing Naxal-accused in jail, whom he has also treated. But Binayak always visited Sanyal in the presence of jail authorities. It's a grave injustice not only to Binayak but to everyone who fights for the marginalised in this country. But I knew we would get justice.

There's a feeling among certain sections that even if Dr Sen didn't take part in any Naxal activity, he is a Naxal sympathiser.
That's not true. The fact is that my husband spoke out against the deplorable health conditions of the tribals in Chhattisgarh and the skewed sense of justice of the state government in arming tribals to form the Salwa Judum. He spoke out against the Salwa Judum and he was punished for that.

There was overwhelming support for Dr Sen from India and abroad. Did that come as a relief in these difficult days?
Oh yes, it was. Support for Binayak came from all over. This includes nationwide demonstrations on May 14, a motion tabled in the UK Parliament, an editorial and at least two articles on his detention in British medical journal Lancet decrying India's human rights record, and a recent critique of the trial by Amnesty International. Nobel laureate Amartya Sen and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar of Art of Living also demanded his release. I am thankful to all of them for their support.

If the charges against Binayak Sen were framed, as you say they were, would you say these are difficult days for the civil rights movement?
Well, it surely gets difficult when you try to bring in any kind of change. You would be surprised that a lot of people in the state administration told me that Binayak, who is a qualified doctor, should have been in urban centres earning money and not wasting time in remote, tribal areas. In fact, it was held against him that he works for the uplift of poor tribals. But civil rights movements will carry on, I am sure of that. I have also not lost faith in the country's institutions.