Commentary 24/07/01 Let’s start Father Stan Swamy’s beatification process

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Let’s start Father Stan Swamy’s beatification process

The Jesuit martyr who was falsely targeted by Indian probe agencies is already a saint to the tribal people he served

Candles flicker outside a church holding a memorial Mass for Indian rights activist and Jesuit priest Father Stan Swamy in Mumbai on July 6, 2021. (Photo: AFP)

By John Dayal

Published: July 01, 2024 12:17 PM GMT

Updated: July 01, 2024 12:20 PM GMT

The Holy Father has embraced him back twice, the first time in the Vatican, the second on the sidelines of the meetings of the leaders of G-7 in Apulia, southern Italy, in June this year. Narendra Modi’s army of social media experts made that hug as viral as they had made the images of his being sworn in as prime minister of India for the third time.

In the Vatican meeting, Pope Francis reminded Modi that he needed to do something about the widespread persecution of Christians in various parts of India. Presumably, any meeting between the Catholic leader and the head of government of secular India’s billion-and-a-quarter people will always have that as an unspoken reminder.

Modi is yet to open his mouth on how he intends to quench the fires and staunch the blood that still stains the state of Manipur, now a full 14 months after a Kuki Zo woman, gang-raped and paraded naked by a mob with state police in tow, shocked the world.

Modi’s government has also not taken any step to exonerate Jesuit priest and social activist Stanislaus Lourduswamy — Father Stan Swamy for short — who it had arrested on charges of being a part of a conspiracy to assassinate him.

Stan, all of 84 years, prey to Alzheimer’s and other old age ailments, died a prisoner of the state during the Covid-19 pandemic. His applications for medical bail were heard in the Bombay High Court a few hours after his death. Special court judges had earlier rejected bail, saying the old prisoner was faking it. The National Investigation Agency said the old man with his limbs aquiver with disease was much too dangerous to be free.

The demand that Stan’s honest name be washed clean of being tainted a criminal was made by his friends, co-workers and fans cutting across religion. The demand to the Holy Father that Father Stan was a martyr, and deserved to be canonized, was made not just by a vast number of Catholics in India, but by Christians of other denominations.

Tribal activists and others from the rest of India, who had perhaps heard of the canonization process during the Sainthood of Mother Teresa, have joined the fray, and are surprised the process has not begun so far. Many of them are saying so on social media.

But Stan is a people’s hero, and to his beloved Adivasis, the tribals of Central India — among the oldest peoples’ groups in the subcontinent — he is already a saint. In his home in ‘Bagaicha’ in Ranchi, the capital of Jharkhand state — a program of remembering him and celebrating his life on his death anniversary on July 5 has already been chalked out and announced to the nation. Public meetings are expected to be held in other places.

For them, and for us, the celebration of the life of this frail man, his limbs quivering with the impact of his Parkinson’s ailment, will hold up a mirror to the government. Its policies towards its own people, especially the tribals and the poor, verge on the cruel. Jal, Jungle, Jameen (Water, Forest, Land) are holy to the people, their very life. Gifting it away to crony capitalism barters away their future.

Stan was, anyway, also innocent of any crime, other than perhaps taught him by Jesus — loving his neighbor.

The Tamil Nadu-born Jesuit was arrested in October 2020 under the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. He was in his small room when he was arrested, his computer and other belongings were seized and he was put in jail. He told his interrogators from the police and the National Investigations Agency then and later that he was totally innocent of the charges laid against him.

There is much evidence now that the “evidence” on Stan Swamy’s computer was planted. The trial is yet to start, while Stan is dead, and several of his co-accused in the notorious Bhima-Koregaon case have been given medical bail by the higher courts after the global repugnance at the Jesuits’ passing way in custody.

The Washington Post published a report by the United States-based digital forensics firm, Arsenal Consulting Limited, saying Stan was a target of a malware campaign for close to five years. Hackers had access to his computer and planted material which was then conveniently cited by the government. The key evidence against two other accused in the case, Surendra Galding and Rona Wilson, was also planted using malware.

The cyber-security forum ‘SentinelOne’ found that there was a “provable connection” that the Pune Police hacked the email accounts of Rona Wilson, Varavara Rao, and Hany Babu and planted material on devices belonging to Rao and Wilson.

Wired magazine reported that the smartphones of some other co-accused were infected by the Israeli military spyware ‘Pegasus’ which was also used against many Indian journalists.

One of Father Stan’s last messages from jail was: “What is happening to me is not something unique, happening to me alone. It is a broader process that is taking place all over the country. We are all aware how prominent intellectuals, lawyers, writers, poets, activists, student leaders — they are all put in jail just because they have expressed their dissent… I am ready to pay the price whatever may it be.”

As long as he drew breath, Stan would not allow his spirit to be arrested by his inhumane treatment by a vengeful state.  Even in jail, the free bird sings, he told Jesuit colleagues.

Just a few days before he was arrested, Stan had said that he had challenged the “indiscriminate” arrest of thousands of young Adivasis and moolvasis (original inhabitants), with investigating agencies labeling them as “Naxals,” which is used to describe ultra-Left, and often armed, underground militants.

In life and in his martyrdom, Stan has become a beacon for all who struggle for human rights, especially the rights of the tribals and other marginalized people, and a role model for young men and women across the nation.

*The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official editorial position of UCA News.