It would take sheer ingenuity on part of a person to venture into finding similarities between the cities of Raipur and Moscow. What could possibly link these two disparate lands? Boasting of different languages, different demography and geography, relative importance in political circles of the country, they are possibly as different as chalk and cheese. However, the past month, they have been witness to two farcical trials, where verdicts delivered by kangaroo courts held to hostage the very ideals of freedom which the nations of India and Russia claim to practice and promote.
The first case being refereed to is the one of Binayak Sen who was charged with sedition against the Indian State under the draconian Public Security Act by the Raipur district court and sentenced to a life term. The other is the conviction of Mikhail Khodorkovsky in Moscow on charges of fresh embezzlement and fraud, in spite of his conviction on similar charges in 2003. Despite stark differences in their personal characters, Binayak Sen was a respected human rights activist whereas Mikhail Khodorkovsky was a billionaire oligarch having major stakes in Russian Economy (legal and illegal), today they stand on the cusp of being coroneted as symbols of victimization for human rights activists in both the countries.
The trials show a systematic subversion of doctrine of justice by the state in collusion with the judiciary. It raises serious questions about the nature of freedom these two rapidly growing nations postulate and guarantee their citizens. Not many consider Russia a serious democracy. Mr. Vladimir Putin has been the cornerstone of Russian politics since the turn of the millennium and shows no sign of giving up his grip on power. After the USSR crumbled, there was hope of a democratic change. However, Russia has been reduced to a land of extreme corruption where cohorts of those in power, patronized by the wealthy oligarchs call the shots. In such a scenario, many human rights activists claim that Mr. Khodorkovsky real crime was to have posed a threat to Vladimir Putin, by acting as an independent property-owner rather than a servile manager of Russia's natural resources, and by funding opposition parties and using his influence to lobby against Mr. Putin's aim of building an oil-fuelled authoritarian regime. Thus in spite of many Russians reviling him for his behavior during the turbulent decade of 1990’s, today, ironically he stands defeated by the same system he once perpetuated. Mr. Binayak Sen on the other hand was pediatrician and a highly respected human rights activist who served as the Vice President of People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL). He was charged on the filmiest of circumstantial evidence as being a courier for a Maoist leader Narayan Sanyal and after a Kafkaesque trial, he has been pronounced guilty. This travesty of justices, say human rights activists, has been motivated by Dr. Sen’s constant stand against Salwa Judum, the state sponsored civil militia meant to fight the naxals (seen as largely responsible for grave human rights abuses across the tribal areas) and his constant support to the adivasis and opposition to the military approach used by the Indian Government to tackle the ‘problem’ of Naxalism. Last heard, both Mr. Khodorkovsky and Dr. Sen were filing an appeal to higher courts.
Recent trip by the President of United States of America would have made many believe in the future of ‘Indo-US friendship,’ and similarities between the ‘glorious democracies’ of these two nations. However such politically motivated convictions, a cabal of oligarchs and funded politicians calling the shots (Nira Radia tapes prove that in ample measure), chronic corruption marked by inequalities of wealth, scant respect for human rights are all indicators of the fact that India might just have a lot more in common with political systems prevalent in Russia than it ever imagined.
