Recently, the only other news that has earned a lot of editorial space besides the onion stink is that of the life sentence awarded to Binayak Sen. However, the common man hasn't got quite involved in it the way they did during the Jessica Lal case. Binayak Sen's case is of great significance to the society because it is about the common man's predicament and every individual's democratic rights in India. It is about our right to ideology and our right to work for a better society.

As a doctor and Vice-President of the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Sen extended his profession by providing health care to disadvantaged tribal families in the poor state of Chhattisgarh. He had also worked with the state government on theu00a0 health sector reforms and had expressed his views on human rights violations during the anti-Naxalite operations. And this last part, in short, is his only crime!

Politicians are the real terrorists in a country where the common man has to fear for his democratic existence

The evidence shown to prove Sen guiltyu00a0 consists of books, articles and letters sent tou00a0 him by Sanyal and his exchange of thoughts on Maoist and Naxalites. This, by no means, can be considered a criminal offence; rather, this is one of our fundamental rights. Sen has also been charged with reading Mao's books and Marx's Das Kapital ufffd by those standards, I too become a criminal and so do the the students in colleges studying political history.

Sen also raised his voice against government's move of Salwa Judum (for which even the Supreme Court had lashed out at the Chhattisgarh government).