The Blog Of Dysfunction

The following is a letter sent recently by Dr. NM Samuel to the alumni of his alma mater CMC Vellore. Dr. Samuel is a graduate of CMC, batch of 1964. He is married to his class mate Dr.Susie, they have two children Rekha and Anish and two grand children. He started his career in leprosy and moved on to HIV/AIDS to retire as the professor and the head of the dept of Experimental medicine and AIDS research center of the TN Dr.MGR Medical University.He now runs an NGO called C.A.R.E.-”concern for AIDS research and Education”, operating out of Namakkal.

Dear Alumni

I was on a team evaluating the eight vulnerable states for HIV in India for the Global fund round six. We arrived in Raipur the capital of Chattisgarh on August 31st and I went to see Binayak Sen in the Central prison at 10 am.

The orderly took my card in and returned after half an hour to tell me that it would be a long wait and suggested that I wait under the shade of the trees nearby. He gave me an A4 sheet asking me to write an application to the Superintendent of the jail seeking permission to visit Binayak Sen.

While I was waiting in the shade there were several police personnel walking around and one young officer started to talk to me. When he found out that I was waiting to see Dr Binayak Sen he told me ” Sir when you go to the Doctor Sahib please tell me that we are aware of his good works for our people and we appreciate it. But please tell him to inform the naxalite tribals that I want to get married and I don’t want to die so soon!”

After 2 hours the orderly returned to take me in to meet the Superintendent of the jail. I was asked to leave my bag at his office. I asked if I could take a book in for Binayak. He agreed and I was led into another room where I came face to face with Binayak Sen after 38 years. The last time I saw him was in 1973. After the Bangladesh war I had worked in Bollabhpur in Kushtia district during my community health posting to help rehabilitate a hospital that was completely destroyed by the war. On my return to CMC I persuaded Dr. Fenn who was the principal to accompany me to see the place and to establish an ongoing program, which he did. Three of us, Benny Benjamin, Binayak Sen and I had spent six months each in a war ravaged Bangladesh . As I hugged his thin frame I realized that this was not the first time that he was exposed to danger or fear. It was wonderful to see him again. Binayak is well though he has lost a considerable amount of weight on prison food. He can only receive post cards and not envelopes.

He is transported to the court for the hearings. He says that all the allegations are fabricated and false and they have rounded up sixty false witnesses to testify against him. Thirty of these have been questioned .The examination of the other thirty is still pending. The general elections in the state of Chattisgarh are slated for November 2008. Binayak is convinced that they will not release him before that in case he speaks against the ruling party. His crusade was to provide care and support for the tribal community and assist them in all their development programmes including health. It still is.

Binayak belongs to that rare species of committed old students of CMC who are empowered by their convictions to provide unselfish care to the poor and marginalized in the country. He is concerned about the recent developments in the state of Orissa and he worries that the Govt is against the tribals and other minorities particularly the Christians. His commitment to the have nots of the country was humbling as was his calm demeanour and quiet dignity. I thought of all the times that I lose my cool over trivia as I looked at a fellow doctor and college-mate facing imprisonment and possible incarceration with justice only a distant and remote possibility.

When I gave Binayak the message from the young officer outside he laughed and said “Really?!” We talked for about an hour. When I gave him the prayer book that I had taken from my bag he showed it to the Superintendent to seek his permission to keep it after which Binayak recorded my visit in his diary and I left after saying goodbye.

I was extremely sad to see him and leave him in these present circumstances. His whole world is disrupted and he has been separated from his wife and daughters for a cruelly long time. He is truly a courageous, living saint and I felt privileged to have seen him and to have spent almost an hour in the prison.

We need to continue to pray to The Almighty for a miracle to help Binayak and his family to come out of this predicament.

Sam

All over the internet and in other media people are showing their solidarity to Dr. Binayak’s cause, which in one way is the caause of any honest Indian who wants to make a difference and refuses to be corrupted. Let us hope justice is served and order restored to his life, though I am sure his life, and his family’s, will never be the same.

Let us also remember that for every one celebrated doctor who goes to prison unfairly, and makes front page news, there are perhaps a hundred other unknown “nobodies” who have been killed, silenced or oppressed and no one will ever hear of them.This is not, therefore, a fight for the elitism of a profession, it is of this nation to realize  a dream, best said by Gurudev Tagore

“Where the mind is
without fear and the head
is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not
been broken up into fragments
by narrow domestic walls…
Into that heaven of freedom,
my Father, let my country awake. “

Ciao

Schizo