Two years ago on this day, 84-year-old Jharkhand-based tribal rights activist Father Stan Swamy breathed his last while in custody. His death exposed the state’s negligence and inability to protect prisoners. Swamy, a Parkinson’s patient, spent close to a year in jail, deprived of the most basic facilities – one of which was a sipper to drink water from.
On his second death anniversary, 11 of his co-accused – all human rights activists and academics – write a letter to President of India Draupadi Murmu, who belongs to the tribal community that Swamy worked very closely with. Murmu, who recently spoke passionately about the conditions of Indian prisoners, was the governor of Jharkhand when Swamy’s organisation, Bagaicha, was raided and eventually he was arrested by the National Investigation Agency.
Along with the letter, the still-arrested human rights defenders also announced their one-day symbolic hunger strike in Mumbai’s Taloja and Byculla jails, where they are presently lodged.
The full text of their letter to the president is below.
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July 5, 2023. It has been two years since Fr. Stan Swamy’s custodial death, or rather an institutional murder carried out through a series of well-calculated, cold blooded steps by the State machinery that resulted in a loss of a precious life, devoted to the fight for the rights of India’s poorest of the poor – especially the tribal people of Bihar-Jharkhand – for a period spanning more than half a century. In the last two years, we also witnessed for the first time the election of a tribal woman as the President of India. Her Excellency Smt. Draupadi Murmu was the Governor of Jharkhand when Fr. Stan’s residence at ‘Bagaicha’ in Ranchi was raided twice by the Pune Police on allegations of his involvement in the Bhima-Koregaon (BK) case and when the NIA arrested him and took him to be imprisoned at Navi Mumbai. The Hon’ble Governor had maintained silence then.
However considering Fr. Stan and his commitment to democratic ideals, he would have been excited with her election and would not miss the opportunity to petition her office regarding social concerns that were close to him and the absurdity of the BK prosecution. For him after all, she was one of his own. So here is an attempt by his eleven still-jailed co-accused to recreate Fr. Stan’s prayer to our Constitutional head. We thought of some concerns, Fr. Stan would definitely have more.
Johar, Your Excellency! We sincerely hope that during your term in office, the upliftment of India’s tribal population and other poor and marginalised classes and communities are not reduced to mere acts of tokenism. This is a real danger as the present rulers want to win over the poor through cultural and caste symbolism while at the same time promoting a corporate sell-out of the entire economy. In its gradual creation of a Brahminical Hindu Rashtra, the present ruling dispensation has ignited communal hatred throughout the country and increased fascist attacks on minorities, resulting in a vicious environment wherein not only one’s fundamental rights are threatened, but even one’s citizenship and patriotism stand questioned. History will assess Your Excellency’s tenure on whether you went beyond symbolism and acted in defence of the poor as proof of your commitment to your roots.
We hope that during Your Excellency’s tenure importance to tribal issues will not be confined to showcasing Adivasi dance and headgear, which has been a regular feature on all your official visits. Meanwhile the rights of tribals are gradually being eroded. From being the traditional forest-protectors/ dwellers, Adivasis are now seen as forest destroyers. The Supreme Court in its 2019 order directed the eviction of over Twenty Lakh forest dwellers. Though this judgement is under review, the State’s disinterest is apparent from its lethargy. Fr. Stan and his Adivasis brethren had in the mid-2000s initiated the ‘Pathalgadi’ movement in Jharkhand wherein tribal villages would erect stone-slabs inscribed with the powers of the Gram Sabhas under the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution and the PESA act. However rather than being complimented for promoting legal awareness, thousands of Adivasis were booked for sedition. Fr. Stan too was named as accused. A similar situation exists in other tribal areas, wherein hundreds of Adivasi youth are being imprisoned in Maoist cases. Some are even killed in false encounters. The proposed census even attempts to deny tribals their separate religion – Sarna.
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Your Excellency rightly spoke that rather than building more prisons, the government should strive to create conditions wherein fewer prisons are needed. Honourable words indeed. Fr. Stan had himself, through a PIL, petitioned the High Court of Jharkhand regarding the false imprisonment of numerous tribal youth in Maoist related cases. This was revealed through a systematic six-month research among Undertrial Prisoners in Jharkhand conducted by the ‘Bagaicha’ staff and some lawyers. However the state in its response not only chose to deny any wrongdoing but rather decided to literally kill the messenger.
A key unelected person of the Union Government has blatantly declared that civil society is the new frontier to wage war for National Security. Retrospect, the BK prosecution and the anti-CAA cases of Delhi-UP are examples of this Machiavellian agenda at work. If a protest or an agitation erupts against the Government, change the narrative and either criminalise the protesters or communalize the environment or better both. Any organisation or NGO that does not toe the line can be booked for an FCRA-FEMA violation or even for being a front of a terrorist organisation. CBDT can be called in or else ED & NIA would be ever willing. Media houses too can be dealt with this prescription. If they cannot be silenced by co-option, then get a corporate friend to buy them off and slowly saffronise content. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology will play its role by tweaking the relevant IT Rules.
At every judicial hearing, the state repeatedly claimed that the prosecution against the BK accused is not about muzzling dissent but rather that of unearthing and punishing a pan-Indian Urban Naxal conspiracy. However the testimony of the sole witness against Fr. Stan among the total of 336 witnesses reveals otherwise. His evidence states that the priest publicly expressed at a hall meeting in Kolkata that the BK accused were falsely prosecuted and were in fact innocent. If keeping an 83 year old in prison for eight months for such “incriminating” act so as to cause his death is not a itself a criminal act of silencing dissent, pray, Your Excellency, what is?
Father Stan Swamy (26 April 1937 – 5 July 2021). Art: Pariplab Chakraborty/The Wire
Fr. Stan’s sipper incident epitomised the malaise of our criminal justice system. Not only was Fr. Stan’s plastic sipper-tumbler arbitrarily confiscated at the prison gate, but the trial court ridiculously adjourned the matter for almost a month for the NIA to file its reply to his request for a new one. Due to severe Parkinson’s, he could not drink from glass without spilling. However within hours of this becoming headlines, the Prison Superintendent rushed to provide Fr. Stan six sippers, drinking straws, a walking stick, a walking crutch, a wheelchair, a western commode and a cot. The Superintendent made sure Fr. Stan posed for a photograph beside all these, probably to douse his superior’s anger. This is exactly how prison reforms happened – either due to a media exposé or on the superior’s whims, but never due to an inmate’s needs.
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Your Excellency, Fr. Stan’s initial reaction to the documents shown to have been found in his computer was of deep shock, contempt and disgust. He would repeatedly tell his inmates that he could “never in his wildest imagination” possess such literature. The Courts did not believe him. On the other hand, if a deep-fake appeared of a ruling party politician or celebrity, the State would immediately rush to its best forensics to dispel similar emotions of disgust. However in Fr. Stan’s instance no such attempt was ever made. The truth never mattered. What mattered was the construction of a false narrative that catered to the political needs of the rulers.
Last December, Arsenal Consulting, the US based Digital Forensic firm released its report after analysing the Hard disk of Fr. Stan that supposedly contained incriminating documents. It revealed that Fr. Stan’s computer was the target of a continuous Malware attack for nearly five years, the longest known, the firm said, for any of us accused. The Malware was used by the attacker to surveil Fr. Stan’s activities and plant fabricated documents. The night before the Hard disk was seized, on June 12, 2019, the attacker performed an extensive “clean-up” to obfuscate their tracks. Leaving us without any doubt that the Malware attacker was in-league, if not within the Police team that seized Fr. Stan’s computer. Now it made sense – on August 28, 2018 the Pune police missed seizing Fr. Stan’s infected computer and hence had to come back on June 12, 2019 to rectify this error.
During the bail hearings of Fr. Stan before the Bombay High Court, Your Excellency, a senior Judge of the bench had expressed with awe how Fr. Stan’s funeral was viewed online by thousands of netizens. On the following hearing, he was not only made to apologise by the Government’s Counsel, but in due time a few Hindutva backed organisations started a concerted letter-campaign with the CJI for his impeachment. Resultantly, the Hon’ble Judge soon recused himself from any matters related to the BK case. There was no subsequent impeachment, but the message was delivered. And bail still remains difficult.
Of late, the ruling party has begun an outreach to Christian Church leaders, especially in Kerala, where Christians constitute 14% of the population, even as the the other significant minority is increasingly getting alienated. Such engagement helped electorally in the North-east. However in Fr. Stan’s case, the Christian Church was targeted due to its role in organising Jharkhand’s tribal population. Not only was Fr. Stan made out to be a member of a banned organisation, but his fellow clergymen were harassed in the name of investigations. In the fabricated letters, a local and popular community organisation run by the Jharkhand Diocese was made out to be engaged in religious conversions, receiving unregulated foreign funds and being a Maoist front. For minority leaders, those willing to accept the larger Hindutva project could be accommodated. However those who posed a challenge would be brutally crushed.
The Code of Criminal Procedure stipulates that an inquiry by a Judicial Magistrate be conducted into the cause of death of a person in custody. Though such an inquiry has been instituted regarding Fr. Stan’s death, no findings have come forth. However the crucial question is whether the Magistrate will confine herself to merely immediate causes or dwell into the deeper issue? Will she looked into the systemic failure of the State to take care of its detainee? The failure of the Prison department to appoint an MBBS doctor during the period Fr. Stan was in the prison hospital? The failure of the Prison Superintendent to honestly apprise the Court that they did not have the infrastructure to take care of Fr. Stan’s medical needs? The deliberate opposition of the Public Prosecutor and Investigation Officer to Fr. Stan’s bail on medical grounds during the pandemic, despite the Supreme Court & Government calling for decongestion of prisons? The deliberate failure of the Prison Medical Officer to record Fr. Stan’s oxygen (SPO2) levels dropping below 85% and thus not immediately conducting Covid RT-PCR tests? Will the Magistrate question how Fr. Stan what is immediately diagnosed Covid positive on reaching the Private Hospital but never in prison? Or rather, the most important question – whether the NIA was justified in making the arrest, in the first place?
Also read: Stan Swamy’s Laptop Was ‘Planted’ With Incriminating Documents, Says New Forensic Report
Your Excellency’s voice is crucial. The silence that Fr. Stan endured from the Governor of Jharkhand’s office resultantly denied him his longing to be with his people. The same silence would now deny the same for many more.
We will continue to voice these grievances. In Fr. Stan Swamy’s memory, on July 5, 2023, all of us will be on a one-day symbolic hunger strike in prison.
– Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut, Vernon Gonsalves, Arun Ferreira, Hany Babu, Ramesh Gaichor, Sagar Gorkhe and Jyoti Jagtap