Editorial
Voices beyond the Catholic mourning
Opinion | Editorial | John S. Shilshi | 15-Jul-2021
Fr. Stan Swamy's death did not come as a surprise. It was waiting to happen because not only was he a frail 84-year old, but he had several health complications from the time he was taken to Jail in connection with a terror charge, which many in this free thinking country thought was done with an ulterior motive. As we mourn the departure of this humble soul, we reproduce some excerpts of non-Catholic voices that followed his death for esteemed reader’s interference.
The Deccan Herald Editorial: Stan Swamy's death and institutional murder
“The passing away of the 84-year-old Jesuit priest and tribal rights activist Stan Swamy, who was suffering from multiple ailments and was on ventilator support in a hospital in Mumbai, is an indictment of the Indian State and its agencies which have hounded him for months and failed to provide him the minimum human consideration due to a sick old man”.
Editorial of the Tribune: The death of Fr. Swamy
“The National Investigation Agency (NIA) claimed that he was a Maoist and a key conspirator in the Bhima-Koregaon case, but it did not, even for a day, seek his custodial interrogation after it arrested him on October 8, 2020. The NIA just wanted to keep him in jail. The FIR of the case goes back to 2018 when the NIA raided Fr. Swamy’s residence first and he was questioned too, yet he was not arrested till 2020. Obviously, the NIA did not consider him a flight risk. Then, why did it keep a Parkinson’s patient in jail during a raging pandemic?”
Who is guilty - Stan Swamy or those who kept him behind bars? : Alok Rai, in an Article on the Indian Express
“On Monday afternoon, Father Stan Swamy died in state custody. But the canny state, which had recognised that he intended to use a sippy cup as a terrorist device, and so took its time giving it to him, that state can surely claim that this was no ordinary death. It was a seditionist act. They will stop at nothing, these dangerous Urban Naxals. They will do anything to malign the noble state. … …The impunity of the state and its agents in destroying lives at will must be reined in. It cannot be legitimized by any electoral ‘mandate’.”
Editorial of Times of India: Death of a principle: Stan Swamy’s demise should shake up a justice system, on procedure and on judges’ reading of laws:
“Stan Swamy’s death in judicial custody was an entirely avoidable tragedy. And pretty much every part of the criminal justice system is responsible. First, he was not even being tried. He was awaiting further proceedings in last year’s NIA-filed Elgar Parishad chargesheet. Second, NIA arrested Swamy only a day before filing its chargesheet. This showed it didn’t need him for custodial interrogation. Therefore, investigative integrity wouldn’t have been threatened had Swamy received bail. But, and this is the third grave injustice, NIA stoutly opposed bail pleas of an 84-year-old with serious medical conditions, and one who was jailed when a pandemic was raging. Fourth, the trial court failed on counts of common sense, simple decency and judicial principles by stalling the bail of an octogenarian with Parkinson’s, who couldn’t possibly intimidate witnesses or pose a flight risk”.
Killing Him Softly With His Song: A Requiem for Father Stan Swamy, Justice (Retd) Madan B. Lokur on the Wire
“The entire episode leaves behind a feeling that Stan Swamy was virtually thrust a sentence of death without charges being framed against him and without a trial. Are the provisions of the UAPA more important than the provisions of the Constitution of India, particularly Article 21? Is it not possible for the powers that be in our country to be more compassionate, humane, merciful and dignified, or is it that everyone must suffer indignity and disgrace at the hands of the powers that be?”
Hindustan Times Editorial: Stan Swamy: A systemic failure
“Eight months after he was arrested under the Unlawful (Activities) Prevention Act (UAPA), Father Stan Swamy, an activist who worked with tribals in Jharkhand, died on Monday. The 84-year-old died of cardiac arrest, but had a history of illness, including Parkinson’s and a recent Covid-19 infection. But this must not be treated as a natural death. His death is an outcome of India’s disturbing political climate, where civil society activists are painted as anti-national and the law is abused for partisan purposes. It is an outcome of politicised investigative agencies, which now face allegations of having planted evidence in the broader case (Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad) where Swamy was an accused. And it is an outcome of a broken judicial system which has developed its own extreme brand of bail jurisprudence, where even those who are entitled to it on humanitarian grounds and pose no threat are kept in prison”.
Leave a comment
