Shiv Sena condemns Stan Swamy's death; asks 'Why Centre afraid of 84-yr old activist?"

Almost a week after Tribal activist Fr Stan Swamy's death in Taloja Central jail, Shiv Sena on Sunday questioned if the 84-year-old Bhima Koregaon accused was truly a 'mastermind' of the 2018 riots. Condemning his death, Sena MP Sanjay Raut argued that Swamy and the other activists' revolution against the government was via poetry, writings and did not constitute as treachery. Notably, it was under the BJP-Sena government that the Maharashtra police arrested nine activists who had attended the Elgar Parishad meeting in Pune, accusing them of 'destabilizing law and order in the state'. The case was later handed over to the NIA with CM Uddhav Thackeray's consent.

Raut: 'Is our country so weak?'

Aghast at Swamy's death, Raut lashed out at the Centre, "An 84 year-old feeble elderly man can destabilize the nation. Is our nation founded on such feeble roots?". Comparing the Gupkar alliance to Fr Stan Swamy. Raut argued, "The Gupkar gang which seeks restoration of Art 370 and independent Kashmir is allowed to talk to the PM, but Fr Stan Swamy dies in jail suffering. Not one court grants him bail as the NIA says that his release will disturb law & order."

Recalling the Bhima Koregaon riots, Raut questioned if Fr Stan Swamy, Gautam Navlakha, Sudha Bharadwaj, Varavara Rao are the real masterminds." Fr Stan Swamy, Gautam Navlakha, Sudha Bharadwaj, Varavara Rao, Anand Teltumbde are accused of inflammatory speeches and masterminds of the Bhima Koregaon riots. These people belong to one school of thought and oppose the system via poetry, writings and songs. Fr. Stan Swamy worked for Tribal welfare in Jharkhand and it is yet to be probed if his ideas were Maoist or Naxalite."

Comparing imprisonment of activists during Emergency with the incarceration of the Bhim Koregaon activists, he added," George Fernandes was jailed during Emergency and was accused of treachery. Bombs and revolutionary writings were seized from the young Fernandes of whom the Indira Gandhi government was scared. Today's govt is scared of an old, blind, deaf, feeble Fr. Stan Swamy." Condemning the inflammatory speech given at Elgar Parishad, he asked, "How is fighting for tribal rights and inspiring revolution treachery?"

He concluded,"If we accept Maoists, Naxalites are dangerous and the several organisations based on them are worse than Kashmiri terrorists, how can one justify the death of 84-yr old Fr Stan Swamy in custody? Inspite of several activists raising the injustice of Fr Stan Swamy's incarceration, this govt (Centre)'s heart did not melt.  A govt scared of a feeble old man is dictator by act but scared at heart, be its whichever govt".

Swamy dies in Taloja jail, waiting for bail

On Monday, 84-year-old Jesuit priest Fr Stan Swamy breathed his last at a Mumbai hospital where he had been admitted. Undertrial in the Bhima Koregaon case, Father Stan Swamy's counsel informed the Bombay High Court of his passing away as the court took up his bail plea for hearing. The octogenarian tribal activist had applied for bail on medical grounds after he was arrested on October 8, 2020, from his residence in Ranchi. His co-accused Sudhir Dhawale, Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Shoma Sen, Arun Ferriera, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj, Anand Teltumbde, Gautam Navlakha remain in jail charged with 'conspiracy to assassinate PM Narendra Modi', 'overthrow the government', 'waging war against the Government of India', while Varavara Rao is out on bail.