I didn’t realise that once I mentioned, “Don’t come again right here,” to Stan whereas seeing him off on the gate of the jail hospital, it might show ominous.
It was May 28, 2021, and Arun Ferreira and I drove him in a wheelchair to the gate of the jail hospital, extraordinarily blissful over the Bombay High Court order to shift him to the Holy Family Hospital, albeit for under 15 days. I used to be fairly hopeful that his bail petition, which was being heard, would even be granted throughout his hospital keep and so he will not be again, fairly like VV Stan examined constructive for COVID-19, and two days later he was moved to the intensive care unit. Though he was additionally being handled for heart-related illnesses, the newspapers reported that he was responding very effectively. The court docket monitored his well being intently and prolonged his keep until July 18. Everything gave the impression to be going effectively. However, on July 3, his well being deteriorated and he was shifted to the ICU and the following morning placed on ventilator assist. The subsequent day, that’s, July 5, 2021, in the course of the listening to of his bail utility, Mihir Desai, his lawyer, introduced to the Bombay High Court that Stan had died that morning.
The lengthy journey of Stan from his village in Tamil Nadu to Jharkhand to the Philippines to Bengaluru after which again to Jharkhand and at last to a jail and hospital in Mumbai had come to an finish. He had utterly devoted himself to essentially the most dispossessed and marginalised, as a real Jesuit. With his dying, he introduced the main focus again on the basic rights of Indian residents, the authorized structure that curtailed these rights, what it meant for individuals who labored with communities, on the grassroots, by way of authorized and non-violent means, and the circumstances of prisons. In his life and dying, Swamy left classes for India.
I had not heard of Stan earlier than. While at IIT Kharagpur, I usually performed coaching programmes for managers on the Indian Institute of Coal Management (IICM) in Ranchi. Most evenings, I met buddies on the town however didn’t learn about Stan or his work at Bagaicha, which was additionally in Ranchi. The first time I heard of him was when his identify appeared within the BhimaKoregaon case together with mine. When I filed my petition within the Bombay High Court to quash the FIR towards me, Stan’s petition was additionally filed, by the way, additionally argued by my lawyer, Mihir Desai. I used to be current within the court docket when it was first heard. While my case was keenly opposed by the Pune police, in Stan’s case, they merely instructed the court docket that he was only a suspect. Hence his petition was put aside whereas mine and Gautam Navlakha’s had been heard additional. Stan remained exterior in the course of the time of our give up.
When Varavara Rao was lodged in a cell on the bottom flooring of the Hospital, together with Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira as his caretakers, my loneliness ended. Though conferences with them weren’t allowed, communication was attainable. People on the bottom flooring may come into the courtyard and simply converse with us on the primary flooring. Important data coming by way of letters or mulaqats was thus exchanged. Another channel was the kamwallas, who stayed upstairs however labored within the hospital downstairs. Since they might go anyplace, they had been simple conduits for transmitting messages.
Stan was arrested on October 8, 2020, and delivered to Taloja Hospital in the course of the night time of 9 October. As I realized of his arrival downstairs within the morning, I went to see him with the permission of the jailer. He was mendacity on the ground close to the door within the widespread barrack. When he was woken up by fellow inmates for me, he struggled to rise up and was helped by others to rise. He fumbled for his listening to aids and put them on. His face lit up like a baby’s on listening to my identify, and he conveyed all his affection by way of the grip of his Parkinsonian palms on mine throughout the bars.
After the assembly, I noticed the CMO and pleaded with him to place Stan in a separate cell with caretakers, ideally from amongst our co-accused, as was achieved for Varavara Rao. The CMO readily agreed, and the very subsequent day Stan was shifted to a separate cell together with Chacha, the kamwalla. When Varavara Rao was despatched to the surface hospital, the jail may have simply positioned Vernon and Arun with Stan, however for no matter causes, they despatched Vernon again to his circle and fortunately positioned Arun with Stan, together with Chacha. Arrested underneath the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act following fees pressed by his step-granddaughter, Chacha had instructed Arun that he had been trapped. One didn’t know what the reality was, however Chacha labored very onerous in jail, doing all types of jobs after jail duties to earn a packet of cigarettes, which he was keen on. Arun and Chacha lived with Stan till he left the jail perpetually.
Stan had a number of points in jail on account of his well being situation. He couldn’t even maintain a glass of water regular to drink from. Outside, he instructed us he used a sipper bottle and straw to drink water, however they had been disallowed by the jail employees when he was delivered to Taloja. He couldn’t hear with out a listening to assist and was unable to talk on the telephone throughout mulaqat. To be sure that his valuable minutes weren’t wasted, Arun would take the telephone and talk along with his buddy Joe, who was registered with the jail. Fortunately, the guards had been humane sufficient to not object to this.
By the time the sipper challenge was communicated to the attorneys and so they may file an utility on November 7, already a month had handed. The court docket nonchalantly requested the NIA to file a reply by November 26, after 17 days, comfortably, after the Diwali trip. For each single matter, the court docket would mechanically ask for a “say” from the identical circle superintendent or NIA, or each. Courts usually speak about “utility of thoughts”, however I hardly discovered the judges demonstrating it themselves. Small issues like a sipper and straw requested by a Parkinson’s affected person mustn’t have been a problem to resolve with arguments. A decide ought to slightly be amazed that such points are delivered to the court docket in any respect and summon the jail superintendent to clarify issues. But such issues are simply not achieved. It is a ritual that on each single utility, the respondent occasion should file a reply.
The NIA responded that it had performed a private search of Stan Swamy throughout his arrest within the presence of impartial witnesses and “no such straw and sipper had been discovered”. The court docket dominated: “In view of this rivalry, the appliance being devoid of substance deserves to be rejected.” When this matter leaked exterior, it created a wave of denunciation and have become a metaphor for the insensitivity of the Indian jail system and the state in the direction of an 84-year-old Jesuit dissenter.
Meanwhile, Stan had requested for a full-sleeved sweater, a skinny blanket and two pairs of socks. He wrote in a letter to Joe, “I’m sorry to listen to that these supplies weren’t accepted on the jail gate and the one who introduced them needed to take them again not as soon as however thrice.” A prisoner wouldn’t learn about such issues till he’s knowledgeable by a letter or within the subsequent mulaqat, each of which had been so unsure. Letters suffered delays and mulaqats occurred with a cycle time exceeding per week, extending typically to even two weeks. Stan’s defence group needed to make one other utility in search of instructions to the jail superintendent to permit Swamy to obtain winter put on and a straw and sipper that will be despatched to him at his personal value. The court docket sought a report from the jail superintendent and posted the listening to for December 4. News of this leaked out and the “sipper and straw” challenge turned a global outrage. Ultimately, on December 4, 2020, Stan lastly obtained a straw, a sipper and his winter garments from the jail employees.
Those days had been scary. COVID-19 was at its devastating peak. We usually heard of somebody dying and sometimes noticed a useless physique being taken out. There was not even a correct stretcher within the hospital to point out respect, at the very least to a useless physique. The kamwallas dumped it on a thick jail blanket and carried it by holding the corners. Only after months, when the COVID menace had receded, did we see a proper stretcher getting used within the jail.
There was built-in motivation all through the hierarchy to flaunt wonderful administration of the pandemic throughout the nation. Despite studies of half-burnt carcasses floating within the Ganga, the federal government remained in denial mode. The nation’s whole well being infrastructure collapsed underneath the extreme wave of the COVID-19 variant that struck it, however the authorities didn’t budge in acknowledging, not to mention making an attempt to rectify issues. Instead, within the wake of the deaths of 63 kids on account of oxygen scarcity at Gorakhpur’s BRD Medical College hospital, the physician in command of the paediatric part, initially hailed for paying out of his personal pocket to buy oxygen cylinders as mother and father panicked, was blamed. Predictably, he had a Muslim identify. Some 20 days later, Dr Kafeel Khan was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Police Special Task Force, allegedly for his duty for the youngsters’s deaths. He spent eight months in jail earlier than being granted bail by the Allahabad High Court in April 2018, with the court docket observing that there was no direct proof of negligence on his half. Two years after his suspension, arrest and imprisonment, a 15-page authorities probe report confirmed the excessive court docket’s observations.
Such cases of brazen injustice had turn out to be the brand new norm. Later, when the pandemic subsided and the precise dying depend started to emerge, India’s under-reporting turned world information. The WHO claimed that a number of million COVID-19 deaths had most definitely gone unreported, estimating that over 4.7 million individuals – greater than ten occasions the federal government determine – had died due to the virus.6 As typical, the federal government vehemently denied this till the difficulty light from public reminiscence, like a whole bunch of others.
Even in these crisis-ridden occasions, we managed to steal little moments of pleasure. Stan was presupposed to be walked within the hall by Arun, as per the physician’s recommendation. Besides, each Stan and I had been included within the each day monitoring of blood stress, temperature and oxygen depend of prisoners. This offered me with a handy excuse to come back down and meet each Arun and Stan each morning, permitting us to spend time collectively. I might stroll with Stan as he recounted tales and expressed his concern for the jail employees. He pitied the kamwalla boys who needed to carry heavy steel containers of meals thrice a day to distribute to inmates. He questioned why the jail directors hadn’t considered a easy resolution like wheeled trolleys. I retorted, saying it went towards the very goal of the prisons. Stan, too harmless to understand my sarcasm, genuinely believed in humanising the jail system. Besides, there was no ramp offered within the jail so the wheeled trolleys may very well be plied. The jail, simply ten or 12 years outdated, didn’t adjust to incapacity norms.
To my dismay, within the subsequent weekly spherical, Stan stopped the jail superintendent and voiced his suggestion. The contingent of officers and guards will need to have been surprised by such concern from somebody whose personal struggling knew no bounds. It was too human a request to be understood by the superintendent, who appeared devoid of empathy and notably prejudiced towards us. When his juniors defined what Stan had mentioned, he merely dismissed it and moved on.
On one other event, Stan, with childlike glee, was eagerly ready to reveal one thing to me. He mentioned, “Do you already know, Anand, I’m going to dwell as much as 185 years.” Never earlier than had we seen him bothered in regards to the fees towards him. His solely grievance was about being separated from the individuals he liked. However, the earlier night he had counted the punishment for every cost towards him from Arun and did some psychological maths to amuse himself with the foolishness of the whole system. His maths was a easy summation of all of the sentences the fees entailed, plus his current age. I remarked that if the authorities came upon, they could make the sentences run concurrently, denying him even that privilege. He appeared upset.
In jail, one of many sadistic strategies employed is to maintain you continually on the transfer. Without discover you may be ordered to shift to a different circle and even inside the identical circle inside minutes. It was used as a disciplining instrument. Not happy with the persistent challenges we BK prisoners posed, there was a transfer to shift us to totally different jails in Maharashtra. Fortunately, it was efficiently stalled. Sometimes these strikes proved to be blessings in disguise, as when a few of our co-accused had been shifted to the Anda (referred to as so as a result of it was spherical in form and egg-like) cell from varied circles. Likewise, in the future, all of the sudden, Stan, together with Arun and Chacha, was moved to the primary flooring of the Hospital the place I used to be lodged, permitting us to satisfy comfortably throughout open hours. Walking and chatting with Stan, I realized a lot about his previous.
Stan was born in a village in Tiruchirapalli (Trichy) district in Tamil Nadu. Inspired by the lifetime of Jesuits whereas learning at St Joseph’s School in Trichy, he joined the Madurai Jesuit province and opted for the Jamshedpur province of the Society of Jesus. He graduated from St Xavier’s College, Ranchi, and later pursued theological research together with a grasp’s in sociology in Manila, the Philippines. There he realized from scholar protests the significance of struggling towards energy. During his additional research, he befriended a Brazilian Catholic Archbishop, Hélder Câmara, whose work among the many poor impressed him vastly. Stan returned to India and labored in Chaibasa, growing a lifelong love for the Adivasis. Except for his tenure as director of the Indian Social Institute (ISI) in Bengaluru, throughout which he spent a while learning in Belgium, his work was centered on Adivasis. At ISI Bengaluru, he initiated programs in social evaluation and group mobilisation.
Even whereas residing in Bengaluru, his love for Chaibasa remained sturdy. He returned there within the Nineties after his time period at ISI ended. He helped revive JOHAR (Jharkhandis Organisation for Human Rights) to strengthen the gram sabhas within the Adivasi villages based mostly on their cultural values and customary practices. With the arrival of neoliberal reforms within the Nineties, extractive industries started displacing Adivasis, prompting Stan to ascertain ‘Bagaicha’ in Ranchi in 2005 to handle these points. Before his arrest, Swamy had filed petitions highlighting the misuse of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) towards Adivasis. Courts usually dismissed these pleas, citing “nationwide safety”. He lived in Bagaicha till the NIA took him to Mumbai on October 8, 2021.
On March 23, 2021, Stan filed an utility for bail on medical grounds, which was rejected by the NIA court docket. During the listening to of his enchantment, he was summoned on May 21 earlier than a division bench of Justices SJ Kathawalla and SP Tavade of the Bombay High Court through video-conferencing from the Taloja jail. We thought he may make a case for being shifted to an outdoor hospital. But Stan was in his component and instructed the court docket bluntly, when it requested him if he wished to be admitted to JJ Hospital for “basic therapy in an effort to enhance his total well being”:
I’ve been there twice. I’m not for being hospitalised in JJ Hospital. What medicines will that hospital give me? It is not going to enhance; it’s going to maintain going. I might slightly die right here very shortly if issues go on as it’s … I used to be taken to JJ hospital and there have been lots of people however I had no alternative to clarify what I needs to be given. There are some medicines which the jail authorities gave me, however my deterioration is extra highly effective than the tablets they’re giving me.
He additional instructed the court docket, “The solely factor I request is to contemplate for interim bail. I’ve been in deteriorating situation. I might slightly be in Ranchi. I don’t suppose any of that [hospitalisation] goes to assist.”
Both Arun and I had been stunned when he instructed us about this trade on his return. Alas, this easy want of his would go unmet!
Excerpted with permission from The Cell and the Soul: A Prison Memoir, Anand Teltumbde, Bloomsbury India.
