Arundhati Roy speaks on Binayak Sen's conviction

Writer-activist Arundhati Roy on Wednesday condemned the conviction of human rights activist Binayak Sen, who was sentenced by a Raipur court to life imprisonment on charges of sedition, saying the evidence and the judgement were just not connected to each other.

"The evidence was so weak. Even Narayan Sanyal, who seems to be the kingpin around whom the whole sedition case was built up, was not accused of sedition when Binayak was arrested," she said.

"In some way it (the verdict) was a declaration. It was not a judgment, it was a warning to others," she said in an interview.

Roy said a situation has been created where the definition of 'anti-national' and 'doing something for the greater common good' are completely conflicted and corrupt.

"If you are talking, let's talks about the Maoists who are banned. Why are they banned? Because they believe in violence. But today's papers talk about Hindutva elements being involved in the Samjhauta blast. Even mainstream political parties have been involved in acts of heinous violence, amounting to genocide, but they are not banned. So what you choose to ban, what you choose not to ban -- all these things are political decisions," Roy said.

Today, the government and its economic policies are performing anti-constitutional activities, she said.