Are Jesuits terrorists, really?

By M K George

Rome, Aug 22, 2023: In recent times, I heard from two people that Jesuits are terrorists: One, the president of Nicaragua Daniel Ortega and the other by an anchor of Janam T V, a Malayalam channel based in Kerala, southern India.

It was while seizing a prominent Jesuit-run university, Central American University (UCA), in the capital Managua that President Ortega accused the University of being “a centre of terrorism organised by criminal groups.”

An anchor of Janam T V, a Malayalam channel, — with alleged allegiance to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — in one of the recent channel discussions said, ‘Fr. Lourdswamy is a terrorist. So said the National Investigation charge sheet.’

Can a chargesheet by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) ‘prove’ that someone is a criminal, especially when there are scientific evidences to the fact the computer of Fater Swami was tampered with and false data was planted?

Facts speak

In Nicaragua

What has the Jesuit University done?

The 63-year-old university has educated thousands of students over the years. However, they also have fought for Human Rights, Justice and Peace. Ortega is mad that the University has been a hub for the 2018 protests against Ortega’s controversial reform of the national social security system.

“Since the 2018 protests, the Ortega administration has ramped up efforts to crack down on its critics by imprisoning political rivals and closing nongovernmental groups. The UN estimates more than 3,200 organizations have been forced to shutter between June 2022 and June 2023 alone, including the local branch of the Red Cros.

Among those institutions are radio stations, schools and other groups associated with the Catholic Church. Ortega has been an outspoken critic of the Church, particularly since 2018, when the Catholic leaders attempted to serve as mediators between the government and protesters,” reported Al Jazeera (August 17, 2023)
The provincial Curia of the Jesuits in a statement recalled, that the “new government aggression” against the Jesuit university “is not an isolated incident,’ but part “of a series of unjustified attacks against the Nicaraguan population and other educational and social institutions that are generating a climate of violence and insecurity, and exacerbating the country’s socio-political crisis.”

“This government policy is systematically violating human rights and seems to be aimed at consolidating a totalitarian state,” the statement decried.

In India

What have the Jesuits done in India?

Educated generations of students to be competent, compassionate and committed citizens of India. Did the Janam T V anchor check with prominent men in the ruling party who were educated in the Jesuit schools before making that statement?

An organization that prepares students to be ‘men and women for others,’ can it be terrorist? Yes, if the ruling party is against human rights, justice and equality.

What did Father Lourdswamy, whom they call a terrorist, do really?

He got involved in the ‘Jharkhand Organisation for Human Rights (JOHAR), which took up matters pertaining to displacement of Adivasi communities on account of development projects. By the end of the last century, he moved to Ranchi and with the help of the Jesuit society and intellectuals and activists such as Ramdayal Munda and Xavier Dias, he set up Bagaicha, a research institute, in 2006.’

He focussed on issues of land alienation and displacement caused by development projects like mining, dams and creation of townships without the consent of the people.

In one word, he challenged the paradigm of development promoted by the powers that are. He took up advocacy of the legal rights of Adivasi and Dalit communities, which were granted by laws like PESA (1996), The Forest Rights Act (2006), and the Land Acquisition Act of 2013.

How does one who advocates for the implementation of laws become a terrorist?

Most importantly, Stan realized that many young men were being picked up and being put in jail for opposing the taking over of land and consequent displacement of the tribals. He formed a group called Persecuted Prisoners Solidarity Committee and together with several lawyers filed Public Interest Litigation(PIL) in the Jharkhand HC, which eventually led to the freedom hundreds of tribal youth, falsely accused of being terrorists, Maoists etc.

His ‘study disclosed several undisclosed, striking realities about alleged ‘Naxalite’ under-trials in Jharkhand. Disproportionately large numbers of Adivasis , Dalit and other backward castes (generically referred to as Adivasi-Moolvasis) have been trapped in several false cases especially when they try to assert their constitutional and human rights that are often violated by those who consider themselves ‘upper’ castes/ classes and the state system ” (Dhamini Ratnam, KAY Abbas and Divya Chandrababu in Hindustan Times July 12 2021)

The truth then is that Father Stan Lourdswamy advocated for the poor Adivasis and their human rights. He got hundreds of innocent Adivasi youth released from jail.

In Nicaragua, Jesuits are called terrorists because they work for human rights.

In India, they are named so because they educate the poor and help the deprived fight for their rights against a highly casteist and fascist government.

The hope

Salman Rushdie said once, ‘A poem cannot stop a bullet. A novel can’t defuse a bomb. But we are not helpless. We can sing the truth and name the liars.’

And the words of Stan chime in: ‘We sixteen co-accused have not been able to meet each other, as we have been lodged in different jails or different ‘circles’ within the same jail. But, we will still sing in a chorus. A caged bird can still sing’.

Yes, we need to keep singing the truth and naming the liars.