Signature campaign to abolish law: Binayak Sen

Social activist and national vice-president of the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) Binayak Sen has started a signature campaign for abolition of provision of sedition from the criminal law in India.

Social activist and national vice-president of the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) Binayak Sen has started a signature campaign for abolition of provision of sedition from the criminal law in India.

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Sen, 58, who was accused of sedition and is currently out on bail granted by the Supreme Court, was present at a press conference organised to show support to Aseem Trivedi and to demand abolition of the law.

“We are planning a signature campaign to get the sedition law repealed. We aim to get at least 10 lakh signatures and send them to Parliament,” Sen said. Calling it a colonial law, Sen said the law was being constantly misused to suppress dissent against the government.

Trivedi also urged the people to sign the petition drafted by Sen and his group for abolition of the law.

However, Sen distanced himself from Trivedi’s controversial cartoons. “We have come together on one platform to demand the abolition of the law and would not want to comment on anything else,” Sen said.

Sen, a pediatrician by training, was arrested on May 14, 2007. He was accused by the police of acting as courier for naxal ideologue Narayan Sanyal, who was in jail.