SANJOY GHOSE

On July 4, 2011 there is serene calm at the Palam Vihar office of Charkha, an organisation started by Sanjoy Ghose, social activist who was killed while working in the Majuli islands of Assam. It was exactly 14 years after his young son was abducted and murdered that we met Shankar Ghose, Sanjoy's father. We walk down to the basement to find him sitting with newspaper cuttings on the table headlined 'Sanjoy Ghose killing a mistake: ULFA'.

At the end of his tether,  Ghose blurts out, "You cannot kill somebody and say it was a mistake. You have to pay for it. There is a law you must abide by. Law must be applicable to all and if a chap says he made a mistake you do not let him off the hook." Cries of a father in anguish.

On July 4, 1997, social activist Sanjoy Ghose was abducted by ULFA from Majuli, where he was working as head of NGO Association of Voluntary Agencies for Rural Development (AVARD). After the abduction ULFA claimed he was a RAW agent.

Says Ghosh acerbically, "I really can't say that there was a lack of sincerity on the part of the government to help us find Sanjoy. They said all the right things but nothing happened. No one knew what happened till ULFA admitted… now they say we killed him… not seven days later, ten days later… they kept us hanging for months… he was killed the same day he was abducted… look what they have put us through and then (he claps) they say that it was all a mistake."

Sanjoy’s mother has become quiet, too quiet. "When I vent my anger she just says that he has left us very broken. She stifles her anger, her depression She is intellectually more evolved. She says keep your grief to yourself’'.

For Sanjoy’s wife, Shuvita, life has been tough. The wounds remain fresh. Not unnaturally, she breaks down at the simplest question about him, ‘It is an emotional topic for me. There is anger and frustration (breaks down)… It isn't something one wants to remember.'' She lives in Gurgaon with son Anando and daughter Joyita. Between them there is no mention of Sanjoy.