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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Fr Stan Swamy has expired: But, his questions haven’t -EAS Sarma

Fr Stan Swamy has expired: But, his questions haven’t -EAS Sarma

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published Published on Jul 7, 2021   modified Modified on Jul 8, 2021

-Countercurrents.org

In the death of Fr Stan Swamy on July 5, 2021, who was an “under trial” detainee languishing in the custody of the authorities, India has lost a courageous campaigner for adivasi rights. The manner in which the 84-year old Jesuit priest was forced to die has shaken the conscience of the nation. What hurts the feelings of any one with a true sense of justice is that the authorities had callously watched his deteriorating medical condition, made no effort to speed up his trial and forced him to prove his innocence in death. The manner in which he was coerced to die will remain forever a blot on the track record of human rights in India.

Fr Stan Swamy was charged with sedition. What was the crime he had committed to deserve it?

He tried to answer this in a note he had recorded, which was published on July 31, 2018 (https://thewire.in/rights/pathalgadi-movement-adivasis-sta
n-swamy-sedition
), soon after the then Jharkhand authorities first filed a case of sedition against him for supporting the adivasi Pathalgadi movement. Those sedition charges were revoked later when the present government in Jharkhand came to power. He was subsequently implicated in the so-called Elgar Parishad case and was arrested on October 8, 2020. To arrest human rights activists and then force them to languish in jails without a speedy trial seems to be the order of the day! Instead of feeling concerned about human rights violations brought to their notice by the civil society activists and addressing the same in line with the law of the land, as any civilised democratic government should, the authorities seem to betray their own true intentions by incarcerating, humiliating and intimidating those very same human rights messengers.

Democracies can survive only when they respect the rule of law. The questions posed by Stan Swamy in the above mentioned note primarily revolve around this premise with special reference to the Constitutional rights of the adivasis and the special laws applicable to them.

He questioned as to why the government had not enforced the special Constitutional rights of the adivasis as laid down in Article 244(1) and the Fifth Schedule and why they had reduced the Tribes Advisory Councils (TACs) to the status of “toothless” bodies. He referred to the land mark judgement of the apex court in the Samatha Case that private companies should not be allowed to mine in the Scheduled Areas and questioned as to why the rulers had not cared to comply with it. He questioned as to why the successive governments had failed to enforce the provisions of the two special laws applicable to the Scheduled Areas, namely, the Panchayat (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act (PESA) and the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act (FRA), which empowered the adivasi Gram Sabhas in decision making on all matters relating to the welfare and the development of the tribals, including mining. He further questioned as to why the then Jharkhand government introduced a regressive amendment to the otherwise progressive Central law on land acquisition, namely, the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act of 2013. The amendment exempted projects from being subject to “social impact assessment” and “prior consent” of the affected people, the two progressive components of the 2013 law.

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Countercurrents.org, 7 July, 2021, https://countercurrents.org/2021/07/fr-stan-swamy-has-expired-but-his-questions-havent/?fbclid=IwAR0G_5dUwl53VdFRkeqVxeYTbD-7CA4dV_JXtngYR8CAe4LNN2izIL8yS-U


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