US Congress accepting a resolution commemorating the life of the rights defender and Jesuit priest Father Stan Swamy, on his first death anniversary and seeking an independent investigation into his death has been a matter of disgrace for the Modi Government which only a week back had signed a resolution along with other G7 members to protect human rights. Earlier some US Human Rights agencies including USICRF had objected to the misuse of state power. The USICRF had also suggested designating India as “a country of particular concern”. But the MEA taking these observations seriously called the report’s observations not just “biased and tendentious”, but also “misrepresentation reaching new levels”. How the MEA rejected the accusations simply strengthened the impression that trampling human rights is the right of the Modi Government and no power on the earth dares to challenge this.
Juan Vargas, a Congressman from the US state of California, introduced the resolution along with Representatives Andre Carson and James McGovern. Significantly the move coincides with the first anniversary of 84-year-old Swamy’s death in police custody. Recently a webinar was organised by Front Line Defenders, Hindus for Human Rights, the Humanism Project, India Civil Watch International, and Survival International, and co-sponsored by Adivasi Lives Matter, Dalit Solidarity Forum, the Federation of Indian American Christian Organisations of North America (FIACONA), and the Indian American Muslim Council. Swamy was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) from Ranchi in October 2020 under the draconian UAPA in connection with the Elgar Parishad case. It is an open secret that Swamy was not connected at all with any unlawful action. Since he fought for the poor Adivasis who were exploited by the capitalist and industrialists, he was the target of the Modi Government. Sources allege that he was ill-treated inside the jail at the instruction of some business houses who have business interests in Jharkhand.
The abuse of Father Stan moved Vargas to say; “I am appalled by the abuse Father Stan faced while in custody. No one who fights for human rights should face such violence and neglect.” Father died at a Mumbai hospital, where he was admitted on May 29 last year, a day after he suffered a cardiac arrest and was put on ventilator support. European Union parliamentarians, Nobel laureates, and other figures of international prominence included academic Noam Chomsky, former President of the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention José Antonio Guevara-Bermúdez, Nobel laureates Olga Tokarczuk and Wole Soyinka have also written a letter to Modi, the CJI of Supreme Court, and other Indian authorities demanding the release of political prisoners arrested in connection with the Bhima Koregaon. It is worth recalling that Justice Shinde of Bombay High Court had ordered a magisterial inquiry into Swamy’s death since he was in the custody of the state and an undertrial at the time of demise. Ironically there is no word from the State Government on the status of the inquiry.
