MARGAO
Voices expressing solidarity with 83-year-old Jesuit priest, Fr Stan Swamy, arrested on charges of sedition, reverberated around the Margao Municipal Council garden on Wednesday as the Jesuits of Goa province, human rights organisations, politicians and the civil society decried the action by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and demanded his immediate release.
The Goa Forward Party also lent the party’s backing to the ongoing movement demanding release of Fr Stan, with party President, MLA Vijai Sardesai, and the party top brass descending on the MMC garden to make common cause with the protestors.
People from all walks of life, from priests to human rights activists Ranjan Solomon and Iftiyaz Sayed to city-based eminent cardiologist, Dr Francisco Colaco, Popular Front of India, trade union leader Christopher Fonseca demanded Fr Swamy’s release.
Margao Municipal Council Chairperson Pooja Naik, councillors, Elvis Gomes, Force Secretary Savio Lopes and many others joined the protest march.
Joining the nationwide protest in support of Fr Stan, Simon Fernandes, SJ, Goa Jesuit Province, Superior, Jesuit House, condemned the arrest and demanded Fr Swamy’s immediate release along with all those who are arbitrarily incarcerated for championing the cause of the poor and the exploited.
“We are immensely grateful to all people of goodwill, civil society members and institutions who have come out overwhelmingly in support of Fr Stan to express their solidarity in a concerted way,” he said.
“The high handedness of the NIA arresting the 83-year-old priest, who is suffering from several morbidities, exposes the grave nefarious design of the ruling dispensation besides being totally insensitive and inhuman,” he added.
President of Goa unit of National Confederation of Human Rights, Ranjan Solomon, said, “We say to the state and the NIA enough is enough, restore justice. Follow the Constitution rather than abuse it. Let us see India through the lenses and vision of Ambedkar. A vision of egalitarian justice allows for unequal treatment to benefit the least advantaged in society.”
Condemning Fr Swamy’s arrest, he said the Goa unit of NCHR acknowledges him as a critical voice for the adivasi communities, who dared to question the police and programmes of the governments, both at the centre and the state.
Briefing the media, Goa Forward Chief Vjiai Sardesai said it is high time that people stand united to defeat the forces out to murder democracy, saying the days are not far away when the government will start calling the people fighting against destruction as Maoists.
Fr Victor Ferrao said the government is on the job to rig everything, right from rigging Parliament to racing to make Goa a corridor to transport coal for the benefit of someone else.
“Goa will lose its honour and dignity if people do not stand up for their rights. They are building the roads and railways for someone else and have numbered the rivers by changing their names,” he added.
Trade Union Leader Christopher Fonseca, Fr Eremito Rebello and others also condemned Fr Swamy’s arrest and expressed their solidarity.
The protestors later took out a protest march around the MMC garden.
The Goa police mobilized a huge police force at the Margao Municipal square as a precautionary measure.
