The October 21st Virtual Press Conference, organised by PUCL, and addressed by representatives of Opposition Parties and eminent personalities, gave a new awakening against the BJP government’s use of the draconian UAPA.
The Conference witnessed the Party representatives and other eminent persons unanimously calling for removing from the Statute Book the draconian UAPA. This ‘hangover of British colonialism’, they felt, is an inhuman and barbarous law and an affront to humanity.
It was pointed out that this obnoxious and anti-people Act is used to punish people as anti-national. Britain, the prime architect of this ancient centuries-old law, found it obsolete and abolished it in 2009. And we, here in India, use this archaic law to target rights activists or those who condemn social injustices or voice dissent against the government.
The speakers pointed out that this law is not exactly misused as often understood. It is truly used to treat people cruelly and inhumanly by arresting them without warrant and detaining them in jail on flimsy and fabricated charges to rot in jail. The tool the government uses is the government-controlled National Investigating Agency, NIA.
Inflicting such cruelty on 83 year old Fr Stan Swami or 80 year old Varavara Rao or the paralysed and wheel chair driven professor Saibaba demonstrates the sinister and heartless intent of the government.
The video-recorded message of Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren struck an apt note like a prophetic warning: “Today, it is the issue of Stan Swamy, tomorrow it will be your turn, and then it will be our turn.” Knowing the ground reality of Fr. Stan Swami’s activities in his Jharkhand state, Soren strongly condemned the arrest and acknowledged Fr. Stan’s work among the Adivasis for over four decades as a genuine work for the development of the poor and marginalised.
Sitaram Yechury, the General Secretary of the CPI (M), said the perpetrators of crime are going scot free while the victims are being further victimised. He cautioned the nation to take note that the UAPA sedition law and NSA are to be seen as a ‘larger plan of the BJP and RSS for a rabidly fascistic, intolerant and authoritarian Hindutva nation.’
Bishop Theodore Mascharenhas, Auxiliary Bishop of Ranchi Archdiocese, called the arrest ‘a blot on the country’s democracy and traditions.’
As regards Fr Stan’s arrest under the dreaded UAPA, Ms. Dayamani Barla, Jharkhand’s noted rights activist, interpreted it as an agenda-based exercise of the central government. She said “It is a part of the larger conspiracy to loot the resources of the state.” Silencing Fr. Stan is intended as an act of terrorising all the poor Adivasis and Dalits so that they will be cowed down to follow the dictates of the government that is intent on handing over tribal land and resources to big business sharks.
No wonder, the hawk’s eyes are on Jharkhand. It is true that minerals need to be explored and utilized for people’s development. But, the contradiction is that, in the name of development, large scale displacement of people from their natural habitat has been taking place. Now, such a threat is getting aggravated by the new land acquisition act. The few lakhs of migrant workers from Jharkhand in Kerala are mainly the result of land alienation, displacement and unemployment.
The aggressive way Jhar-khandi Adivasis and Dalits are becoming the victims of so-called development projects is mindboggling. A very recent incident is an example of the fast and furious way the land of Adivasis and Dalits being grabbed (‘acquired’) by the government. Following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s agreement with Bangladesh in 2015, the Gujarati business tycoon Adani was allowed to build a power plant at Godda in Jharkhand. The coal-powered power plant would supply cent percent of its produced electricity to Bangladesh. The proposed 1.6 GW power station in Godda requires an estimated 5 to 6 million tonnes of coal from Adani’s Carmichael mine in Australia each year. It will be transported to the plant site. For the plant Adani required 1214 acres of land covering ten villages. For this purpose, the former State BJP government ‘acquired’ the needed land and gave it to Adani on a platter.
The local land owners complained their plots were taken without their knowledge and consent. Even in public hearings they were not called to attend. Local people have been complaining that Adani is brutally dispossessing them from their lands, destroying farmers’ livelihoods and abusing human rights for the Godda coal power station.
Retired teacher Ram Jeevan Paswan of Dalit community found Adani’s machines excavating his land. When he protested, Adani’s muzzle-man came and pushed him down.”Then he hit me with his shoes and insulted me and said we will bury you in this ground.”
If such is the environment in Jharkhand, one can guess what will be the cost and fruit of development. It is in such situations, social activists and human rights promoting NGOs are getting booked as Naxals, Maoists and anti-nationals. The whole of Jharkhand is dotted with coal mines, stone quarries, mineral quarries, etc. like landmines. The end result of this scenario is increasing poverty, unemployment, land alienation, illiteracy and victimization of those who speak or stand against exploitation of the poor and the voiceless.
The arrest of Fr. Stan Swami is intended as a strong message to all human rights promoters to keep their distance unless they opt to be implicated in legal tangles as Maoists and anti-nationals.

P.A. Chacko S.J.