Jump to content

Teesta Setalvad

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Btarun (talk | contribs) at 00:29, 23 April 2009 (Undid revision 285451104 SIT directory never confirmed whether the TOI report contents were false. He said that he's answerable only to Supreme Court, thus denied leaking the report.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Teesta Setalvad is a journalist and educationist.[1][2][3] She graduated with a degree in Philosophy from Bombay University in 1983 and started work as a journalist.[4] She reported for the Mumbai editions of The Daily (India) and The Indian Express newspapers, and then for Business India magazine. Appalled by the communal violence during the Bombay Riots, she, along with activist husband Javed Anand, quit full-time journalism in 1993 to start a monthly magazine Communalism Combat.[5]

Teesta is an ethnic Gujarati and the daughter of Atul Setalvad, a Mumbai based lawyer, and Sita Setalvad, a rural crafts exponent.[6] She and husband Javed have two children, Tamara and Jibran.[7] She is a convert to Islam but still uses her Hindu maiden name.

In 2007, she was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India for her role in "Public Affairs in Maharashatra".[8]

Political views and affiliations

Activism

  • Teesta's magazine Communalism Combat claims to foster communal harmony, and attack entities allegedly propounding communal violence.
  • In 1997, Teesta started work on a project, Khoj (Quest), which aims to rewrite sections of Indian school History and Social Studies textbooks to remove "anti-minority prejudices".[14]
  • She is a staunch feminist, campaigns for rights and privileges of Dalits, Muslims and women.[4]

Best Bakery Case/Gujarat Riots Aftermath

In November 2004, she was accused of pressuring Zaheera Sheikh, the key witness in the Best Bakery case, to make certain statements, leading to the unprecedented transferral of the case outside Gujarat. In August 2005, a Supreme Court of India committee absolved her of the charges of inducement levelled against her by Zaheera.

Members of Sabrang communication came to United States and accused it of not giving Christians Muslims religious freedoms and to allege the Indian state under the BJP regime as a place where minorities (Christians and Muslims) religious freedoms are under threat.[20]

Controversy over false cases

In April 2009, the Times of India ran a story claiming that the Special Investigation Team (SIT) setup by the Supreme Court of India to investigate and expediate the Gujarat riot cases had submitted before the Court that Teesta Setalvad had cooked up cases of violence to spice up the incidents. The SIT which is headed by former CBI director, R K Raghavan has said that false witnesses were tutored to give evidence about imaginary incidents by Teesta Setalvad and other NGOs.[15] The SIT charged her of “cooking up macabre tales of killings”.[16]

The court was told that 22 witnesses, who had submitted identical affidavits before various courts relating to riot incidents, were questioned by SIT and it was found that the witnesses had not actually witnessed the incidents and they were tutored and the affidavits were handed over to them by Setalvad.[16]

The report which was brought to the notice of the bench consisting of Justices Arijit Pasayat, P Sathasivam and Aftab Alam, noted that the much publicised case of a pregnant muslim woman Kausar Banu being gangraped by a mob and foetus being removed with sharp weapons, was also cooked up and false.[15][17].

A day later, the Times of India published a letter from Citizens for Justice and Peace claiming that the report in question was not SIT report but a report by the Gujarat Government, and the CBI director Raghavan and other SIT members were not present in court.[18]. The author of the Times article responded saying "My report was based on the SIT report and not any document circulated by the Gujarat government, as suggested by CJP. Whether any section of the media has the report or not is irrelevant as TOI has access to the report.[19]

Reception

Pratap Bhanu Mehta, President of the Center for Policy Research in New Delhi and the former member of National Knowledge Commission has criticized Teesta Setalvad, saying that if the charges against here were true then she had done the cause of justice irreparable harm. He observed that her actions, as described, will undermine the capability of civil society to have any imprimatur of impartiality in investigating riot cases[20].

Mehta later stated his article had been based on the facts as he knew them from the TOI report, and he had not checked the sources of the report. [21].

Affiliations

  • Co-editor of Communalism Combat magazine (along with husband Javed Anand).
  • Teesta's husband Javed Anand runs Sabrang Communications which claims itself as fighting for human rights. Teesta is the official spokesperson of this organization.
  • Teesta heads the Mumbai based NGO Citizens for Peace and Justice(CPJ), of which her father is also a member. Many prominent Mumbai based celebrities are supporters of this NGO.[22]
  • Founder of the Women and Media Committee.[23] The group seeks to bring together working women journalists to raise job-related concerns and awareness of gender-sensitivity in writing and reporting on issues concerning women.
  • Founder of Journalists Against Communalism.[23]
  • Apart from the journalistic tasks Teesta Setalvad leads the project “Khoj: Education for A pluralistic India”.[24]
  • Teesta is General Secretary of People's Union for Human Rights” (PUHR).[24]
  • Member of the Pakistan India People's Forum for Peace and Democracy.[24]

Awards

Other than the 2007 Padma Shri, Teesta Setalvad received the following awards:

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g "Nürnberger Menschenrechtspreisträger 2003". Template:De icon
  2. ^ [http://web.archive.org/web/20071216023607/http://www.htnext.in/news/181_1958494,000600010001.htm
  3. ^ "India THE NEXT DECADE".
  4. ^ a b http://www.ksghauser.harvard.edu/socialmovementsworkshops/includes/Personal%20History%20Teesta.doc
  5. ^ Communalism Combat Completes A Decade
  6. ^ http://www.freeindiamedia.com/women/3_may_04_women.htm
  7. ^ Nuremberg Speech
  8. ^ http://india.gov.in/myindia/advsearch_awards.php
  9. ^ a b "Nandigram violence can't be justified: intellectuals". Hindustan Times. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)[dead link]
  10. ^ a b "Teesta interview 1999"
  11. ^ http://www.thehoot.org/story.asp?storyid=Web21021416663Hoot115732%20PM898&pn=1
  12. ^ The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Minorities still living in fear in Gujarat: Setalvad
  13. ^ Teesta's US testimony
  14. ^ Google Archive School Textbook change
  15. ^ a b NGOs, Teesta spiced up Gujarat riot incidents: SIT [1]
  16. ^ a b Setalvad in dock for 'cooking up killings' [2]
  17. ^ http://dailypioneer.com/169490/Gujarat-riot-myths-busted.html
  18. ^ http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Guj-govts-not-an-SIT-report/articleshow/4407434.cms
  19. ^ http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Report-based-on-SIT-findings/articleshow/4407437.cms
  20. ^ Bhanu Pratap Mehta, An Unconscionable Act, Apr 15, 2009, Indian Express, [3]
  21. ^ Expose of activism and the truth, Apr 19, 2009, "Law and Other Things", [4]
  22. ^ Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP)
  23. ^ a b 403 Forbidden
  24. ^ a b c "Die Verantwortung der Medien - Journalisten zwischen Krieg und Frieden". Template:De icon
  25. ^ Harvard
  26. ^ Parliamentarians for Global Action
  27. ^ Civil Liberties In India By Teesta Setalvad
  28. ^ Sabrang Alternative News Network
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Teesta_Setalvad&oldid=285555751"