Father Stan died on July 5, 2021. He was arrested and charged under a legislation that – to put it mildly – is irreconcilable with several Constitutional protections in India. In addition, the denial of his bail was further a clear violation of the basic principles of freedoms and liberties. And he is not an exception in terms of the inability of the State to deal with dissent in a democratic way, a kind of stifling of space for the varied expressions that society and governance have thrown upon many communities.
This evocative poem by Abhijit Das & Jashodhara Dasgupta was posted on an email discussion group that I follow. As I read it and recollect the Bob Dylan song it draws inspiration from (Who killed Davey Moore?), it helped me realise the perverse expressions of State power. And the way in which checks and balances on State power built into the Constitution can be fragile too…that apart, the all-encompassing and amorphous web of actors that stood by, while he passed on…
I fond another adaptation by Ajaz Ashraf here
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