Shillong, July 5: The Thma U Rangli Juki (TUR) has condoled and expressed anguish over the custodial death of Fr Stan Swamy.
The Jesuit priest worked for the cause of tribal rights and the rights of the marginalised people in Jharkhand.
The Meghalaya State Council of the Communist Party of India expressed its grief and shock over his death and called for the arrest of those who caused his death.
“The people at large take his death as institutional murder,” said Samudra Gupta, the state secretary CPI, Shillong.
TUR leader Angela Rangad said the Hindutva fascist BJP government arrested him on false charges as part of nationwide arrests of activists and intellectuals for a so called Bhima-Koregaon conspiracy.
Angela said Fr Swamy who was living with Parkinson’s and age-related ailments was physically broken down by covid infection in jail and his false incarceration is a testimony to the authoritarian nature of this government.
“His death, while waiting for bail shows us citizens that for this government any democratic dissent is unacceptable and has to be brutally put down. Fr. Swamy knew this well,” Rangad said.
She said one of Fr Stan Swamy’s last messages 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”
Rangad said TUR, while expressing anguish and pain, resolves to oppose all instances of fascist authoritarianism and to carry forward the struggles of the oppressed and marginalised.
