India continued to draw flak from the international community over incarcerated priest-activist Stan Swamy’s death, with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, asking Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to ensure that no one is detained for exercising fundamental rights to freedom of expression.
Nadine Maenza, president of the United States Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), too said that the elderly priest and human rights activist had been “imprisoned on false terrorism charges”.
The Modi Government, however, countered the criticism. “Authorities in India act against violations of law and not against legitimate exercise of rights. All such actions are strictly in accordance with the law,” Arindam Bagchi, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), said.
Read more: A lot else died with Father Stan Swamy
He said that India’s democratic and constitutional polity was complemented by an independent judiciary, a range of national and state level human rights commissions that monitor violations, a free media and a vibrant and vocal civil society. “India remains committed to promotion and protection of human rights of all its citizens.”
Swamy was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on October 8, 2020 for his alleged involvement in violence during January 2018 events to mark the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Bhima Koregaon. He continued to be in the custody of the NIA, while breathing his last at a hospital in Mumbai on Monday – weeks after being tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection.
“We are deeply saddened and disturbed by the death of 84-year-old Father Stan Swamy, a human rights defender and Jesuit priest, in Mumbai yesterday, following his arrest in October 2020 under India’s Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA),” Liz Throssell, the spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in a statement released in Geneva.
She said that Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the independent experts of the international organisation had repeatedly raised the cases of Father Stan and 15 other human rights defenders associated with the same events with the Government of India over the past three years and urged their release from pre-trial detention. The High Commissioner for Human Rights had also raised concerns over the use of the UAPA in relation to human rights defenders, a law Father Stan was challenging before the courts in India days before he died.
She said that in light of the continued, severe impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, it was even more urgent that India and all other nations released every person detained without a sufficient legal basis, including the ones detained simply for expressing critical or dissenting views. “This would be in line with the Indian judiciary’s calls to decongest the prisons.”
Bachelet reiterated her call on the Government of India to ensure that no one is detained for exercising their fundamental rights to freedom of expression, of peaceful assembly and of association.
The MEA spokesperson in New Delhi, however, underlined that the NIA had followed due process of law to arrest Swamy and, because of the specific nature of charges against him, his bail applications were rejected by the courts. “In view of Swamy’s ailing health, the Bombay High Court had allowed his medical treatment at a private hospital where he was receiving all possible medical attention since May 28. His health and medical treatment was being closely monitored by the courts. He passed away on July 5 following medical complications.”
Earlier, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, Mary Lawlor, termed the death of Swamy as ‘devastating’ and said that jailing "human rights defenders" like him was “inexcusable”. Eamon Gilmore, the European Union’s Special Representative for Human Rights, too mourned his death. “India: I am very saddened to hear that Fr #StanSwamy has passed away. A defender of indigenous peoples’ rights. He was held in detention for the past 9 months. The EU had been raising his case repeatedly with authorities,” Gilmore posted on Twitter.