The UnitedNations body on human rights has expressed anguish over the death of Jesuitpriest and tribal rights activist Stan Swamy, who was jailed under theanti-terror law. In fact, the trial may fail but the sentence is already servedas an undertrial. And in this case, it was no less than the death sentence. Thepassing away of Fr Stan, who was suffering from multiple ailments and was onventilator support in a hospital in Mumbai, is an indictment of the Indian Stateand its agencies which have failed to provide him the minimum humanconsideration due to a sick old man. It would need an impossible stretch ofimagination to believe that an 84-year-old sick man who served tribals andadivasis for decades and had no record of any crime in his life would workagainst the Indian State. His dire words, that he would “rather suffer,possibly die very shortly, if this were to go on’’, have come true, but he diednot because his heart stopped but because of the heartlessness of the State andits institutions and agencies. He will remain a living question mark on thenation’s conscience.
