Members of the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) staged a demonstration here on Thursday in protest against the court verdict on human rights activist Binayak Sen.
Ten blindfolded members of the organisation stood in front of the office of the Deputy Commissioner and raise slogans against the court order. Ismath Pajeer, joint secretary, PUCL, Dakshina Kannada unit, said the organisation would hold a meeting in the city on January 1 with 10 other organisations to discuss how to get their message across to the Governor and the President.
A statement issued by the PUCL said that it was “aghast and perturbed” by the judgment. It said that today, in India, activists who raised their voice against social injustice, inequities, communalism, casteism, unequal distribution of national income, land grabbing in the name of SEZs, and fight for the rights of people, were treated as enemies of the State while the corrupt were allowed to remain free. Watching the events of the Binayak Sen case led one to think that India was on its way to becoming a “banana republic,” it said.