Condemn the hounding of Teesta Setalvad

In the first week of February, a single judge bench of the Gujarat High Court ordered the Gujarat police to arrest Teesta Setalvad and subject her to “custodial interrogation” and also dismissed her application for anticipatory bail.

In the first week of February, a single judge bench of the Gujarat High Court ordered the Gujarat police to arrest Teesta Setalvad and subject her to “custodial interrogation” and also dismissed her application for anticipatory bail. The High Court issued these orders on the basis of a complaint of “misappropriation of funds” by a person not connected in any way with a Trust set up by Teesta Setalvad and her husband Javed Anand in the memory of the victims of the Gulbarga housing society massacre in Ahmedabad. That massacre took place in the terrible days of February 28- March 3 2012 when the Indian state organized the genocidal massacre of people of the Muslim faith in Gujarat. 

The High Court also made sweeping allegations against her on the basis of the statements of the Gujarat police. It is well known that the Gujarat police was involved, not only in carrying out the genocide, but also in protecting the perpetrators and persecuting the victims for the past 13 years. It is also well known that top officials of the Gujarat police carried out numerous fake encounters,  the case of Ishrat Jehan and her companions being the most well recorded. It cannot be dismissed as coincidence that a few days after the arrest warrant against Teesta Setalvad was issued, the courts released former DIG of Gujarat, Vanzare, on bail. Vanzare was arrested for organizing numerous fake encounter killings following years of struggle waged by rights activists. On being released from jail, this organiser of “encounters” declared “Acche Din aa gaye!”

For the last 13 years numerous rights activists and organizations, and political parties like the Communist Ghadar Party who are consistent defenders of human rights and opponents of state terrorism, have been fighting for conviction and punishment of the perpetrators of the 2002 state organized genocide in Gujarat, the 1984 genocide in Delhi and other places, the violence and terror following the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992, and many other acts of state terrorism. Teesta Setalwad has been a prominent figure in this movement for justice, against state terrorism, and for punishing the guilty. In particular her organisation has produced considerable evidence to demonstrate the role of the state in organizing and abetting the carnage, as well as several fake encounters in the subsequent period.

In retaliation, the Gujarat police registered several cases against her and repeatedly tried to arrest her. The active and consistent support of fighters against state terrorism and state organized communal genocides has ensured that time and again, the courts have been forced to stay her arrest. This is what has happened this time too, with the Supreme Court being forced to put a stay on her arrest.

The recent court order against Teesta Setalvad is a clear example of how the judicial system in our country works completely in the interests of the ruling class and at any particular time, in the interests of the party in power. The same courts that have continually persecuted Teesta Setalvad, as they have persecuted and continue to persecute countless others who have stood up for the interests of the downtrodden and marginalized, have no problems in giving a clean chit to well known criminals belonging to the party in power, despite overwhelming evidence of their crimes against masses of people. They have no problem in giving ‘clean chits’ to top police officers and politicians who have organized and carried out fake encounters, in blatant violation of the very laws that the courts are supposed to uphold. Not only have these well known criminals been exonerated by the courts, they continue to enjoy positions of power within the present system.

The continuous persecution of Teesta Setalvad shows how the Indian state, including the legislature, executive and judiciary, will stop at nothing to criminalize any form of dissent against the crimes committed by those in power on the people. All political and social organizations and their activists, who have been raising their voice in defence of the rights of the working and oppressed people, know this very well and have had to face one or another form of persecution by the state.

The CGPI condemns the harassment and persecution of Teesta Setalvad by the Gujarat High Court. We call on all forces working in defence of the rights of the oppressed people to unite and expose the brutal violation of rights by the Indian state and organize to bring in a political alternative, a state which works in the interest of the working masses and not in the interests of the handful of exploiters and their political representatives.

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