A call to protect Indian activists from state repression was made on the death anniversary of Fr Stan Swamy, an 84-year-old Jesuit priest and tribal rights activist who died awaiting trial five years ago. Source: UCA News.
Political leaders from the ruling alliance in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, Fr Swamy’s home state, endorsed the call by Jesuits and rights activists for legal measures to protect activists working for the socially and financially disadvantaged.
Fr Swamy, weakened by age and Parkinson’s disease, died in a Mumbai hospital on July 5, 2021, after being repeatedly denied bail on medical grounds despite suffering from multiple age-related ailments.
At a memorial gathering on July 5 in Fr Swamy’s native village of Viragalur in Tamil Nadu, activists and priests called for the enactment of a special law to protect human rights activists in the country.
The demand for law was among seven resolutions adopted at the gathering of more than 5000 people, including Catholic bishops, priests, nuns, and political leaders.
Leaders from the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), a regional party based in Tamil Nadu, and its alliance partners, including Left parties, “have agreed to raise our demand for a federal law in the Indian Parliament,” Fr Sahaya Philomin Raj said on Monday.
Fr Swamy was arrested on October 8, 2020, under a harsh anti-terror law, along with 15 others, accused of conspiring with outlawed Maoist rebels to unleash mob violence at Bhima-Koregaon in the western state of Maharashtra on January 1, 2018.
However, a report by a Massachusetts-based digital forensics firm revealed that the digital evidence being used by the authorities to act against the Jesuit priest “was planted on his computer’s hard drive by hackers”.
Catholic activists and priests have since been demanding that the Indian government “take full responsibility” for the custodial death, “clear” Fr Swamy’s name, and “withdraw” the false case against him.
The memorial gathering included the unveiling of a life-sized bust of Fr Swamy in the premises of St Peter’s Higher Secondary School, Viragalur.
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Activists call for legal protection, remembering Indian priest’s death (UCA News)
