“Have you ever seen an anti-national? If not, look at me, I am an anti-national” — with this sentence, Dr. Binayak Sen started his speech at Bharat Sabha Hall on 27th Febaruary, in a protest meeting of AIPF, West Bengal, and in solidarity with “Hyderabad-JNU-Jadavpur”. Dr. Binayak Sen exposed the evil design of Chattisgarh Govt. and reminded that after the court declared life imprisonment for him in 2010, the Chattisgarh govt. appealed that he should be hanged to death, because- “I am an anti-national! In a 147 page judgement, High Court of Raipur denied my bail petition. Finally, Supreme Court granted my bail.” Dr. Sen also mentioned that “anti-state and anti-national are not synonymous. Anti-national charges are aimed at stifling the voices of protest against those who are challenging the anti-people policies of the State.” He rather proposed to promulgate the “anti-people law” against the anti-people policy makers of the state.
In this well attended protest meet, National AISA President, Com. Sucheta De said that in the division created between those in favour or against JNU, the struggling people all over the country are with JNU. She also mentioned that JNU had consistently exposed the corporate-fascist policies of Modi govt. Modi government has failed to develop JNU as an ‘elite brand’, and has established an anti-thesis of the ruling classes. In the wake of rising people’s resistance, Modi Govt had to eventually backtrack on Land Acquisition Bill after promulgating it through ordinance route four times. She mentioned that Rohith Vemula not only raised Dalit issues, but also questioned capital punishment and protested against social oppression. JNU stood firmly in support of Hyderabad and therefore had become an eye sore for the Sangh Parivar.
Other speakers were Subhonil Chowdhury, alumni of JNU and Research Scholar of Institute of Development Studies, social activists Bolan Gangopaddhyay, Advocate of Calcutta High Court, Subroto Mukherjee, Secretary of APDR, Ranjit Sur, Sudhanya Pal, Students of Jadavpur University and Manas Gosh, Professor in JU.
The meeting was presided over by Dr. Debasish Dutta, Meher Engineer, Amlan Bhattacharya of PUCL, AB Chowdhury and Kalyan Sen. A resolution demanding immediate release of Kanhaiya Kumar, repeal of Sedition Act and withdrawal of all false cases was passed in this protest meeting.
