We endorse this statement.
Sumit Sarkar, Retired professor of History, University of Delhi
Tanika Sarkar, Retired professor of History, JNU.
On Wednesday, 15 July 2015, 7:08, Satya Sivaraman <[email protected]>
wrote:
Please include my endorsement of the letter.
Satya Sivaraman, Journalist
On Wed, Jul 15, 2015 at 12:29 PM, ram puniyani <[email protected]> wrote:
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: shabnam hashmi <[email protected]>
Date: Wed, Jul 15, 2015 at 10:27 AM
Subject: statement protesting Teesta's harassment- please endorse
To: shabnam hashmi <[email protected]>
Kindly endorse by 3pm. please write your name, profession/ organisation and
state. also please send as many names from your state as possible.
STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF TEESTA
We the undersigned express their profound dismay and disquiet at the continued
official harassment by the central government of leading human rights defenders
Teesta Setlawad and Jawed Anand. Since the installation of the BJP led
government in Delhi in May 2014, the country has witnessed open strenuous
official efforts to foist a large variety of charges of financial irregularity
on them, to harass them, to tarnish their reputations, and to secure their
arrests. Fortunately the interventions of the higher judiciary have protected
them so far. However the latest raids by the Central Bureau of Investigation
into their home and offices in Mumbai on 14 July 2015 are signs of continuing
open misuse of official bodies to harass these human rights defenders.
It is well-known that Teesta Setlawad and Jawed Anand have fought an
unrelenting battle not only to bring to book criminals who committed gruesome
hate crimes against Muslims in the carnage of 2002, but also to expose the role
of the Gujarat government in enabling, abetting and even organising these
crimes. They have been fearless in charging the then Chief Minister Narendra
Modi, who is currently the country’s Prime Minister, with direct criminal
culpability for these crimes. For this they have assisted the widow of a former
MP who was slaughtered in the carnage Zakia Jafri to fight a brave court battle
in which the first accused is the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi. They are
also appealing against court orders to free on bail prominent political leaders
of the BJP convicted of the worst massacre in Naroda Patiya, Maya Kodnani and
Babu Bajrangi.
What we are witnessing is crude and defiant misuse of official bodies to beat
down these human rights defenders so as to silence their voices, break their
morale and divert them from their unrelenting battles in defence of justice
which charge the country’s current leadership with complicity in hate crimes.
The veracity of their charges will be decided in the country’s courts. But
their right to fight for justice on behalf of the survivors of one of the most
shameful communal carnages in the history of free India is protected by
India’s democracy. The open official bullying of courageous human rights
defenders even as persons charged with a range of serious crimes walk free are
brazen official attempts to diminish Indian democracy. These must be powerfully
resisted by all democratic voices in the country. Harsh Mander, Aman
Biradari and Centre for Equity StudiesApoorvanand, academicianShabnam Hashmi,
social activist, AnhadKamal Faruqi, FCA, Former Chairman Delhi Minorities
Commission
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