By Arockiasamy Santhanam
Madurai: Catholic churches across Tamil Nadu October 18 expressed solidarity with Jesuit Father Stan Swamy, a native of the southern Indian state now who is in a Mumbai jail for alleged Maoists links.
During the Sunday Mass, Catholics prayed for the good health and immediate release of Father Stan. They also organized parish level-programs in front of the churches condemning the priest’s arrest and demanded his immediate release.
The call to observe the solidarity day for the jailed priest was given by the Tamil Nadu Bishops’ Council (TNBC). Council president Archbishop Antony Poppusamy of Madurai expressed shock at “the unlawful” arrest of the 83-year-old priest, who for decades served the oppressed in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand.
Father Swamy, a native of Tamil Nadu’s Tiruchirappalli, was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), India’s outfit to counter terrorism, on October 18 from his residence at Bagaicha near Ranchi, Jharkhand capital. He is currently lodged in a jail after a court in Mumbai, western India, remanded him to judicial custody until August 23.
The Tamil Nadu bishops had condemned the arrest on October 10.
Archbishop Poppusamy’s latest press release says Father Stan served among the Adivasis and Dalits in Jharkhand for the past 50 years “with devotion and dedication.”
The bishops’ council notes that the Jesuit priest, who hails from an agrarian family in Viragalur parish of Kumbakonam diocese, joined the Society of Jesus and worked among the Adivasis and Dalits of the undivided Bihar. Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar on November 15, 2000.
The two communities are “highly backward” and their livelihood “is appallingly low,” Archbishop Poppusamy points out.
The Tamil Nadu bishops say Father Stand started defending the tribal people after he found politician supporting those encroaching the lands of “innocent” indigenous people. The tribal woes were exasperated by corporates manipulated the natural resources for their selfish interest, leading to the displacement of tribal people.
The Jesuit priest defended the rights of the Adivasis, especially their land rights guaranteed under the Indian Constitutions and statutes, Archbishop Poppusamy explains.
“Thousands of the tribal youths were imprisoned when they fought for their own rights. They were unable to have even an advocate to defend them from the iron clutches of the oppressive systems, as they are economically poor. Fr. Stan took note of all these factors and on the basis of a research, he filed a Public Interest Litigation to get released of the young Adivasis languishing in prisons. From this time the party then in power was waiting for the right chance to take a revenge on him,” the Tamil Nadu bishop’s press note says.
The NIA arrested Father Swamy for his alleged role in the Bhima Koregaon violence on January 1, 2018.
Various Dalit communities jointly organized a program on that day to commemorate the victory of their ancestors over upper caste people 200 years ago. The battle had taken place at Bhima Koregaon near Pune in Maharashtra.
The Tamil Nadu bishops’ press release alleges the upper caste people, who resented the Dalit unity, created communal violence “stealthily” during the 200th anniversary program.
However, the Maharashtra police blamed intellectuals, human rights activists and progressive writers as those behind the violence. The western Indian state was then ruled by a coalition led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The agency arrested 15 human rights defenders arrested.
“They were enquired on the same day all on a sudden. They were blamed to have plotted to assassinate the prime minister and having contacts with the banned extremist groups,” the TNBC press release says.
Meanwhile, a non-BJP government came to power in Maharashtra in January this year.
The BJP heads the federal coalition that controls the NIA. The federal home minister ordered transfer of the Bhima Koregaon case to NIA without consulting the Maharashtra government, which was planning fresh enquiry in the case.
The Tamil bishops say NIA held enquiry with Father Stan even during this corona lockdown period – four times in July, once in August. “At this old age, though infirm, Father Stan fully co-operated for this interrogation. He firmly denied the dubious documents produced by them and disassociated categorically that some false material have been interpolated into his computer.”
NIA ordered the Jesuit to come to its office in Mumbai for official enquiry on October 6. The Jesuit priest appealed the agency to conduct the enquiry through videoconferencing, considering his ill health, including Parkinson’s disease, corona situation and inability to travel long. Mumbai is some 1,710 km southwest of Ranchi.
The Tamil bishops termed the Jesuit’s arrest as a cowardly act. “The undue arrest of Fr. Stan has created an unwanted and unexpected fear and shock among the social activists serving the Adivasis, Dalits and marginalized as this would be the true face of the so called people’s government,” they say.
Christianity, they point out, has always been for the oppressed people. “To uphold the empowerment of the oppressed humanity in the path of Christ Jesus is the true Christian faith. This is the epicenter of the ideal Christian life.”
The bishops also say they value and cherish Father Stan and see his “noble mission” for the welfare of the Adivasis and Dalits as their pride. “But blaming him with false cases cannot be tolerated in any possible ways,” the prelates asserted.