By Matters India Reporter
New Delhi: People from various walks of life on November 7 condemned the response of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to a request of an 83-year-Jesuit with Parkinson’s disease now languishing in a jail in Mumbai, western India.
Father Stan Swamy November 7 moved the NIA special court for permission to use a straw and sipper cup to drink since his hands shiver uncontrollably because of the disease.
The octogenarian Jesuit has been in the jail since October 9, a day after the NIA arrested him for his alleged links with Maoists from his residence near Ranchi, capital of the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand.
The NIA has sought 20 days’ time to respond to the request. The court, which must grant permission for materials to be sent from outside jail premises, has posted the matter for hearing next on November 26.
“This response from the NIA to Fr Stan Swamy’s request is not only insensitive but absolutely inhuman,” decries Jesuit social activist Father Cedric Prakash.
“Imagine a prisoner not being allowed to use a harmless but necessary sipper and straw because of legitimate physical ailments,” Father Prakash wrote on his Facebook page.
According to him, more privileged citizens “in very serious cases can have judges sitting for them for long hours. The state of our republic.”
Other people too took to social media platforms to condemn the NIA response to the octogenarian Jesuit’s innocuous request.
While Facebook user Gratian Vas sees the NIA delay as “cruel and insensitive,” Cedric Fernandes terms it “very disheartening” and offers to pray “in support for Fr. Stan’s early release.”
Austin Norris prays for “this warped and broken system to be repaired and the heartless people concerned to repent.”
According to Eugene Lobo, another Facebook user, the NIA response is an example of “Nazism at its best.”
June Pinto of Mumbai points out that the Indian culture prides in respecting elders. “As someone once said, our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. Here is one occasion we must all rise to protest against the inhumane behavior and unjust imprisonment of Fr. Stan Swamy.”
Tuscano Manjula is “very sad to know that the person who gave his whole life for the people who were marginalized, oppressed and voiceless is treated as a criminal.”
Parkinson’s is a debilitating disorder of the central nervous system that can cause involuntary tremors, or muscular spasms, which makes carrying out even everyday actions, such as drinking, difficult. In addition, some patients also develop problems swallowing or chewing.
“I cannot hold a glass as my hands are unsteady due to Parkinson’s,” Father Swamy, who has been in a hospital inside the Taloja Central, said in his application.
On October 23, the special NIA court rejected Father Swamy’s bail application, which had been filed on medical grounds.
The NIA had opposed bail, declaring that the octogenarian had been booked under the stringent UAPA (Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act) and was therefore not allowed bail.
He was arrested mainly in the Bhima-Koregaon case which refers to violence that erupted in the vicinity of a war memorial in the village of that name near Pune on January 1, 2018. This was allegedly after provocative speeches were made during a conclave held a day earlier at Shaniwarwada in Pune.
The NIA claims Father Swamy is linked to CPI (Maoist) activities and had a role in instigating violence.
The Jesuit’s arrest was met with outrage across the country, with Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren accusing the central government of “crossing all limits.”
Others, including Sitaram Yechury, general secretary of the Marxist Party, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, and DMK leader Kanimozhi, dubbed the arrest an attack on civil liberties.