By IANS,
Raipur : Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh Wednesday dashed off a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and raised serious objections to the inclusion of rights activist Binayak Sen as a member of the Planning Commission and urged that Sen be dropped from the panel as he is convicted for sedition.
He also said he would skip the plan panel meetings in protest against Sen’s inclusion.
“I request you to review the decision of nominating Sen in the Planning Commission which is the highest policy making body of the country. Sen has been convicted for sedition for his links with Maoists,” Raman Singh said in the letter.
He expressed deep concern over Sen’s nomination and said in the letter, “There is a precedent in the country that those convicts awarded life imprisonment can’t be accommodated in any national committee.” He added: “It is surprising that Planning Commission did not find a suitable person in the entire country rather than Sen.”
Singh further stated in the letter that the contribution of Sen in the health sector is publicised in a “very exaggerated manner”.
“I am informing you with heavy heart that I have decided to skip the plan panel meetings in protest against Sen’s inclusion,” the letter read.
Singh who is heading the Bharatiya Janata Party government in the state since December 2003, sent a separate letter to Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, and strongly objected to Sen’s inclusion.
The Planning Commission has recently nominated Sen as a member of its Steering Committee on Health.
The trial court here had convicted Sen for sedition in December for his links with Maoists and awarded life imprisonment. Sen had moved against the conviction in Chhattisgarh High Court based in Bilaspur town and also sought bail, but the court rejected his bail in February though the Supreme Court granted him bail last month.