By Matters India Reporter
New Delhi: The death of Jesuit tribal activist Father Stan Swamy has brought shock and anguish to political and religious leaders, media persons, activists and various Church bodies, with some demanding a judicial probe.
The 84-year-old Jesuit undertrial prisoner died at 1: 30 pm on July 5 while being treated for post Covid-19 complications in the Holy Family Hospital of Mumbai. He was brought there on May 29 from the Taloja Central Jail near Mumbai, on orders from the Bombay High Court.
Father Swamy was arrested by the National Investigation Agency on October 8, 2020, in the Jharkhand capital of Ranchi and a court in Mumbai sent him to the jail the next day.
A statement from Jesuit Father Frazer Mascarenhas, who looked after Father Swamy in Mumbai, said the tribal activists’ moral remains will be cremated in Mumbai and the ashes would be carried first to Ranchi where he had been living for 18 years until his arrest, and to Jamshedpur in Jharkhand, some 130 km southeast, the headquarters of his province, for final burial.
A funeral Mass is scheduled at 4 pm on July 6 at St Peter’s Church, close to the Holy Family Hospital, in Bandra, a Mumbai suburb.
Mourning Father Swamy’s death, Cardinal Oswald Gracias, head of the Catholic Church in India, thanked God for his “life and commitment to the poor indigenous people and their struggles.” The cardinal expressed happiness that the octogenarian priest received “the best medical attention at Holy Family Hospital” that helped him die with dignity.
“Fr. Stan’s arrest was very painful. Under the Indian criminal law, one is innocent until proved guilty. Fr. Stan’s case did not even come up for hearing. We were eagerly waiting for the case to be taken up and the truth to come out,” said a statement from the cardinal. The cardinal, who on January 21 this year had requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi for Father Swamy’s release, noted that the priest had “worked tirelessly for the under privileged and downtrodden, giving them a sense of dignity and upliftment.”
Archbishop John Moolachira of Guwahati, president of the North East India Regional Bishops’ Council, bemoaned that Father Swamy’s death has “shaken the confidence of society in our justice system and tarnished the image of the country at the international level.”
Among other mourners was Mehbooba Mufti, leader of the People’s Democratic Party and former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, said she was “deeply disturbed” by Father Swamy’s death. “A ruthless and callous government that deprived him of dignity even while he was alive has blood on its hands. Absolutely shocked and appalled. May his soul rest in peace,” she tweeted.
Shashi Tharoor, a leader of the opposition Congress party and former UN under-secretary general, expressed sadness to learn of Father Swamy’s death. “A humanitarian and man of God whom our government could not treat with humanity. Deeply saddened as an Indian. RIP,” he tweeted. Earlier on October 12, 2020, Tharoor had condemned as “a national disgrace” the arrest of Father Swamy who he said had brought help to the helpless for decades. “It’s also eroding our country’s standing as a liberal democracy in the eyes of the world,” he tweeted then.
lrfan Habib, author and historian, tweeted that he was “extremely said” over Father Swamy’s death. “Our system had been so cruel and callous. I don’t think he deserved this for all what he did for the poor,” he added.
Irfan Engineer, Director, Centre for Study of Society and Secularism, said the Jesuit’s death has pained him and held the state responsible. “He died in judicial custody but his spirit was always free. He lives in our memory and will live forever,” he tweeted. He also expressed the hope that Father Swamy’s life and struggle inspire the citizens of India to “finally bury the draconian laws and resurrect human rights, human dignity, and value of compassion.”
Barkha Dutt, a renowned journalist, tweeted that “the death of ageing, infirm #stanswamy subverting even the bail not jail principle. Pause and consider how callous our system can be.”
Siddharth Varadarajan, editor of wire.in, tweeted: “If ever there was a death foretold, it was #StanSwamy’s. The NIA knew. The BJP leaders directing them knew. Others too. All will go down in infamy. But they should apply for bravery medals and Padma Bhushans while they can.”
Jesuit Father Arockiasamy Santhanam, spokesperson for the National Lawyers Forum of Religious and Priests, wants a judicial enquiry into how the Taloja prison authorities treated Father Swamy’s health issues. “No one should have this end due to insufficiency of medical facilities inside the prison,” the priest told Matters India. According to him, the NIA was “inhuman to the core” when it repeatedly objected to granting bail to Father Swamy, ignoring his age and sickness. “It is NIA which is responsible for colossal delay,” he added.
Jesuit activist Irudhaya Jothi, alleges that Father Swamy “was murdered by the government of India. It is nothing but a systematically planned murder. The real culprit has to be booked under the same law and be punished as per the law so that no more innocent people are sacrificed.”
Sister Sujata Jena, a lawyer and activist based in Odisha, termed Father Swamy’s death as “the darkest day for Indians and India’s judicial system.” Speaking to Matters India, she said she was “broken, ashamed” that an octogenarian priest who had spent more than half of his life for the marginalized communities, had to languish in jail for months without proven guilty. “It’s painful to remark that the Indian judiciary has lost its credibility. It’s a national disgrace,” she added.
Father Felix Anthony, public relations officer of the Church in northeastern India, said Father Swamy’s death adds to the painful history of innocent people being vilified in India. The Jesuit’s arrest and subsequent denial of basic items such as spectacles and a straw are “clear evidences of the vendetta politics and fear tactic at play.”
The system, he added, used the arrest to teach a lesson to “all right thinking Indians to keep quiet or to suffer the consequences.” The Jesuit’s death “should put all of us into shame and prick our conscience. His blood is on our hands – the government for arresting him for ‘planted’ evidence, the judiciary for denying his repeated requests for bail during the last days of life, and all of us for being mute spectators to the injustice meted out to him.”
Allen Brooks, spokesperson of United Christian Forum of North East India, expressed “deep pain and anguish” at the death of Father Swamy, who he said was “falsely implicated, imprisoned and made to suffered because of his mission and work among the Adivasis, Dalits and other marginalized communities.” The forum pledged to take forward Father Swamy’s legacy and work for peace, justice and reconciliation.
The All India Catholic Union, the largest association of lay people in the country, joined Father Swamy’s lawyers to urge the Bombay High Court to order a probe into all aspects of the Jesuit’s incarceration and death. A press statement from the union demanded the repeal of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and such draconian laws used to put thousands of people, in jail and deny them rudimentary justice.
“His was a death foretold. It was clear that the State had, in cold blood, decided to wreak on him and others the full might of its vengeance for daring to speak for the poor and the deprived,” alleged the Catholic body.
It recalled one of Father Swamy’s last messages from jail, “What is happening to me is not something unique, happening to me alone. It is a broader process that is taking place all over the country. We are all aware how prominent intellectuals, lawyers, writers, poets, activists, student leaders – they are all put in jail just because they have expressed their dissent… I am ready to pay the price whatever may it be.”
The Catholic union also said that in “life and in his martyrdom,” Father Swamy “has become a beacon for all who struggle for human rights, specially the rights of the Tribals and other marginalized people, and a role model for young men and women across the nation.”
The Indian Catholic Press Association said it was saddened and shocked by Father Swamy’s death and see it as “martyrdom for a great cause.” A statement from the association mourned the “irreplaceable loss of a valiant soldier of human rights. “Questions regarding his arrest, incarceration, denial of bail and the sad circumstances of his death are going to disturb the collective conscience of the nation for a long time to come,” the statement said.