Rights activists demand Saibaba’s release

Efforts on to rope in prominent lawyer Ram Jethmalani to appear before SC for securing release of DU professor who has been awarded life sentence

Hyderabad: Efforts are on to rope in prominent lawyer Ram Jethmalani to appear before the apex court in an appeal to secure the release of Delhi University professor G N Saibaba who has been sentenced for life imprisonment by the Gadchiroli Sessions Court in Chhattisgarh.

This was disclosed by social activist Prof Haragopal while speaking at a public meeting organised by the Coordination of Democratic Rights Organisation (CDRO), Telangana Democratic Forum (TDF) and Committee for Release of Prof G N Saibaba here on Monday.

Terming the sentence handed over to Saibaba by the Gadchiroli court as miscarriage of justice, Haragopal said punishments for ‘thinking’ and ‘associating’ with a political ideology was gross violation of the right to freedom of expression bestowed upon the citizens under the constitution.

“If expressing an opinion is punishable, then even Home Minister Naini Narasimha Reddy who had praised the ideology of Maoists should be arrested,” he said.

Calling judicial system as independent and different from the executive, he said the former had to protect the rights of citizens. “When it fails, people who have lost hope and trust in it will be forced to decide their own course of resolving issues and it would lead to undesirable consequences,” he cautioned.

Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC) chairman Prof Kodandaram said that protest and descent were a democratic process in which people highlighted their issues and sought to resolve them. Nevertheless, suppressing the right to expression and free speech would not do any good to anyone in the long run.

Prof Anand Teltumbde explained at length about how different courts had been handing over punishments to innocent people on the basis of cooked up evidences. He expressed dismay over systematic profiling of people linked to specific ideologies.

Prof Padmaja Sha found fault with media for not being able to do its job sincerely and criticised it for manufacturing people’s approval by taking to people only the “official versions” of the police and other forces engaged in criminalising the alternative political ideas.

Revolutionary writer Varavara Rao pointed out various forms of oppression of the State over the democratic and civil rights of the people and emphasised on the collective struggle against undemocratic and communal forces.

Vasantha, wife of Saibaba explained a series of events in which Saibaba has been targeted by the police and powers that be for fighting against the atrocities and suppression unleashed in the name of Operation Green Hunt (OPG) across the tribal areas in the country by the police and the State.