Ex­press­ing shock and deep sad­ness at the death of Fa­ther Stan Swamy, Naam Tami­lar Katchi chief See­man, in a state­ment has said that though a na­tive of Thamiz Nadu, Fa­ther Stan Swamy, as a com­mit­ted hu­man rights and so­cial ac­tivist, be­came the un­com­pro­mis­ing voice for the in­dige­nous peo­ple of Jhark­hand for more than 30 years.

FIRST THEY CAME FOR Kalpurgi, Govind Pansare, Naren­dra Tapolkar, and Gauri Langesh with guns and killed them. They have now killed Stan Swamy through a lame-duck, bi­ased, in­hu­man ju­di­cial process.

Fa­ther Stan Swamy was sub­jected to the dic­ta­tor­ship and tyran­ni­cal le­gal re­pres­sion of the rul­ing Modi gov­ern­ment, falsely pros­e­cuted, tagged as a ter­ror­ist, and sub­jected to im­pris­on­ment away from his home and hearth in a case in which he was un­nec­es­sar­ily dragged, says the re­lease of Naam Tami­lar Katchi, a Tamil na­tion­al­ist party, in the state of Tamil Nadu which has shown phe­nom­e­nal growth amongst the youth of the re­gion in the last decade. 

“Un­der­stand­ably, his demise has caused an up­roar and un­rest amongst de­mo­c­ra­t­i­cally-minded ac­tivists and politi­cians as well-mean­ing peo­ple in the in­ter­na­tional com­mu­nity.”

The Naam Tami­lar Katchi state­ment says, “Stan Swamy was ar­rested last year by the Na­tional In­tel­li­gence Agency in the Bhima Ko­re­gaon case, and af­ter sev­eral months in prison, de­spite his old age, ill health, and re­peated pleas for jus­tice, the BJP gov­ern­ment, due to po­lit­i­cal vendetta, in their re­lent­less pur­suit for re­venge, made his health con­di­tion worsen and that led to his death in cus­tody.” 

Speak­ing to WSN, See­man said, “By tam­ing the law, the Modi gov­ern­ment has pushed democ­racy to the brink. Op­po­si­tion par­ties, in­clud­ing the DMK, have backed the Na­tional In­tel­li­gence Agency, de­spite the clear warn­ing that it could be used to re­press all de­moc­rats.”

“By tam­ing the law, the Modi gov­ern­ment has pushed democ­racy to the brink. Op­po­si­tion par­ties, in­clud­ing the DMK, have backed the Na­tional In­tel­li­gence Agency, de­spite the clear warn­ing that it could be used to re­press all de­moc­rats.”

See­man, Chief Co­or­di­na­tor, Naam Tami­lar Katchi

“To­day, the Modi gov­ern­ment is us­ing NIA law to sup­press and even­tu­ally to kill de­moc­rats. What are the op­po­si­tion po­lit­i­cal par­ties go­ing to do now,” he added.

Naam Tami­lar Katchi has ex­pressed fears about the plight of Anand Tel­tumbde, Gau­tam Navlakha, and Sudha Bhard­waj, who have also been pris­oned in the same case, and their bail is nowhere in sight. 

Naam Tami­lar Katchi has ex­pressed fears about the plight of Anand Tel­tumbde, Gau­tam Navlakha, and Sudha Bhard­waj, who have also been pris­oned in the same case, and their bail is nowhere in sight. 

“All the anti-de­mo­c­ra­tic ac­tiv­i­ties of the Modi gov­ern­ment and tag­ging of de­moc­rats and so­cial ac­tivists as anti-so­cial and un­leash­ing tyranny through law is highly con­demnable.”

Of­fer­ing con­do­lences to the fam­ily, friends and as­so­ci­ates of Fa­ther Stan Swamy, NTK chief co­or­di­na­tor See­man said, “Stan Swamy, who spent most of his life for the in­dige­nous peo­ple and for the cause of per­pet­u­at­ing democ­racy, will live on for­ever in the hearts of the peo­ple.”

Ti­tle photo cour­tesy: theam­er­i­can­magazine.org