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Teesta Setalvad

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Teesta Setalvad
Teesta Setalvad

Teesta Setalvad (b 9 February 1962)[1] is a Mumbai based Indian minority rights activist, journalist and marxist educationist.[2][3][4] She completed her BA(Honours) degree in Philosphy from Bombay University 1983, upon whence she started her career in journalism.[5] She worked for The Daily, The Indian Express and Business India magazine, when in 1993, she along with activist husband Javed Anand started the magazine Communalism Combat.[6] She was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India in 2007 for her role in Public Affairs in Maharashatra.[7][8]

Politcal Views

  • She is also a staunch feminist.[9]
  • She campaigns for rights and privilages of the minorities, i.e Dalits, Muslims and women.

Activism

  • Teesta Setalvaad shot into prominence for her relentless political attacks on the BJP and the RSS. The RSS and the BJP share a sympathetic view of the Nazi Holocaust of the Jews and have often expressed the desire to set up death camps along similar lines in India. Gujarat was supposed to a lab for some of these tests. [10]
  • In 1997, Teesta started work on a project, Khoj (Quest), to rewrite sections of Indian school History and Social Studies textbooks to remove anti-minority prejudices.[12]

Best Bakery Case/Gujrat 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 to testify against the Gujarat government and accusing it of not giving Christians, Jews and Muslims religious freedoms and to highlight the Indian state under the BJP regime as a place where minorities(Christians and Muslims) religious freedoms are under threat, specifically citing the Gujarat violence which left a deep imprint on the Indian political psyche.[13] Even till this day, Indians typically react with a sense of disgust to the massacres of Gujarat and the sheer barbarity of the crimes committed during the pogrom.

She has also been praised as an enlightened daughter of India and also having the guts to take on the organizations of hate relentlessly in the timeless tradition of women leading the Indian nationalist charge along the lines of former PM Indira Gandhi and Jhansi Laxmi bai of 1857 Indian uprising fame

Affiliations

  • Co-Editor of Communalism Combat magazine
  • Testeeta's husband Javed Anand runs Sabrang Communications which claims itself as fighting for human rights. Testeeta is the official spokesperson of this organization.
  • Founder of the Women and Media Committee.[14] The group sought 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.[15]
  • Apart from the journalistic tasks Teesta Setalvad leads the project “Khoj: Education for A pluralistic India”. [16]
  • Teesta is General Secretary of People's union for human Rights” (PUHR).[17]
  • Member of the Pakistan India People's forum for Peace and Democracy.[18]
  • Teesta also heads the NGO Citizens for Peace and Justice

Awards

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

  • 2004 M.A.Thomas National Human Rights Award from the Vigil India Movement
  • the Nani A Palkhivala Award 2006[19]
  • the Nuernberg Human Rights Award 2003[20].
  • PUCL Journalism for human Rights Award 1993[21]
  • Chemali Devi Jain Award for outstanding Woman journalist 1993[22]
  • Maharana Mewar Foundation's Hakim Khan Sur Award (jointly with Javed Anand) in 1999[23]
  • Human Rights Award OF the Dalit liberation Education Trust in 2000[24]
  • Pax Christi internationally Peace Award (jointly with Australian artist Eddi Kneebone)[25]
  • Rajiv Gandhi Award (jointly with Harsh Mander) for highlighting and helping the victims OF violence in February - July 2002 in

Gujarat, India.[26]

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