To provide a straw and sipper for a decrepit octogenarian priest under judicial custody who suffers from Parkinson’s Disease, the Indian courts have to deliberate! This is the new normal of jurisprudence in the country. The Jesuit priest-activist Fr. Stan Swamy was a fearless crusader for the rights of India’s poor and downtrodden, focally working among the marginalized and ostracized tribals of Jharkhand for 50 years. Tragically, he succumbed to a cardiac arrest after his repeated pleas of specialist medical assistance were rejected and deferred by the Indian courts. At 84 years, he was the oldest political prisoner in the country, implicated in the Bhima Koregaon case, a civil unrest leading to caste violence and arson in 2018 that was wrongly attributed by the incumbent administration to have terrorist underpinnings. He was incarcerated by invoking Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, known by the acronym UAPA, which incidentally is the most draconian law in independent India, that is currently abused by Indian government to witch-hunt its dissidents and critics.
The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) reported a 165% increase in UAPA charges since 2016. This law enforced in 1961 as a deterrent to terrorist activities has been amended in 2019 to bestow unbridled powers to the Centre to book anyone under its clauses. The amendment brought under its gamut individuals which was earlier reserved for organizations. Thus, a spate of arbitrary arrests and detentions have occurred across the country of academics, peaceful protestors, human rights activists, social workers, students and journalists reporting of state connivance and police brutalities.
Constitutional guarantees of human rights and personal liberties were trampled by invoking this law that is meant to be applied under exceptional circumstances. UAPA is a routinized charge now slapped on to anyone who criticizes the government outside the established opposition. It’s unfortunate that a government elected through democratic polity misuses a secular apparatus (read people’s machinery) to persecute and oppress the citizens for their vicious political ends. Fascist regimes were always built on fear and insecurity that preconceives its citizens, especially liberals and intellectuals as having malafide intentions unless proven otherwise. The democratic backsliding in India since 2014 is extremely unsettling and disturbing.
Fr. Stan Swamy was denied interim bail invoking section 43(D) (5) of the UAPA Act when there were neither reasonable grounds nor probative evidences for believing that the accusation leveled against him was prima facie true. The US digital forensics firm, Boston based Arsenal Consulting, hired by Fr. Stan’s defense, has released a report on December 11, 2022 citing that his computer had been compromised from October 19, 2014, until seizing it by Pune Police on June 12, 2019. The report also adds that the same hacker had used sophisticated malware infrastructure to plant forged ‘incriminating files’ in the computers of co-accused Rona Wilson (30 documents planted) and Surendra Gadling ( at least 14 files planted) in the Bhima-Koregaon Case that led the National Investigation Agency (NIA) arresting the priest.
Fabricating facts for framing dissenters have become an unwritten rule in the country. Indian legal system is adversarial in principle and content and therefore operates under the presumption of innocence until proven guilty and convicted by a court of law. The Indian courts have committed a travesty of justice by positing the charge sheet as a presumption of guilt. Bail is presumption of innocence and its denial to a weak and frail 84-year-old is a humanitarian disaster and gross human rights violation. By contrast, a lapdog journalist and stooge of the ruling party gets preferential hearing for bail plea in Supreme Court for charges of abetting suicide on grounds of personal liberty.
He was also found to possess classified information and a leaked WhatsApp chat revealed he was delighted at the prospect of blockbuster TRP ratings when 40 CRPF soldiers were butchered by a suicide bomber in Pulwama, just ahead of 2019 general elections. Double-standards of the judiciary? Who are the true nationalists Where is the moral conscience of this country that pontificates on its hallowed tradition of humanism? Justice denied for one is justice denied for everyone. The ruling party has been violating the sacrosanct ideals of fairness and justice with impunity ever since a gullible electorate voted them to power. The detractors of the government are bestowed with derogatory honorific title, “Urban Naxals”, universally applied to actors, comedians, satirists, scholars and intelligentsia with a legacy of patriotism. Even pregnant women are not spared.
Global condemnation of this tragic custodial death swept the media and tributes had poured in from all quarters. The UN Special Rapporteur of Human Rights Defenders has termed the event as “devastating news from India”, while the European Union’s Special Representative for Human Rights expressed deep anguish at the inhuman treatment and judicial complacency.
India’s global clout as a shining example of ‘Soft Power’, exemplified by cultural loftiness, secular and pluralistic society, religious tolerance, freedom of thought and expression, right to assembly, non-partisan media, liberal political ideals, that positively influences global thought leadership and opinion has taken a backseat in recent years. An insensitive and subservient media that is more interested in debating Bollywood stars’ divorce or a suicide rather than national issues of faltering economy, unemployment, religious fanaticism, fuel inflation, bigotry, atrocities against minorities and jingoism, augment the fall from grace. “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely”, the messianic phrase by Lord Acton exemplifies the current Indian political hostilities. Add paranoia to it, and every citizen is a suspect.