Kochi: Activists of the Akhil Bharatiya
Vidyarthi Parishad, the youth wing of the BJP, on Sunday raised
slogans against the presence of human rights activist Dr
Binayak Sen at a seminar.
As Sen arrived at the Law College campus here to address a
national seminar on "Right to help Vis-a-vis the vulnerable
population", the ABVP activists staged the protest calling him
`anti-national` and `supporter of Maoists`.
Waving the national flag, the protesters, who were later
removed by police, shouted "Go back" and threw some pamphlets.
Since the ABVP activists had threatened that they would
disrupt the function, the organisers had brought it to the
notice of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, who ordered adequate
deployment of police personnel at the venue.
At least 50 police personnel escorted Sen to the campus.
In his address, Sen said food security as part of right to
health and democratization of information flow were the need
of the hour.
Though the Prime Minister had pointed out that 45 per cent
of India`s children below 5 are malnourished, the national
family health survey had pegged the figure at 47 per cent, he
said adding over 50 per cent of Scheduled Tribes and more than
60 per cent of Scheduled Castes were under nourished, he said.
Former supreme court judge Cyriac Joseph, who also spoke,
said the right to protest was an essential right in a
democracy, but the right to speech and expression was also
equally important.
PTI
