Three days before the Supreme Court is to hear final arguments in activist Teesta Setalvad’s plea for anticipatory bail, lawyers, journalists and civil rights activists on Monday termed the move to arrest her and her husband Javed Anand for “custodial questioning” as part of a larger effort to silence dissent.
The couple has been accused of embezzlement of funds meant for the construction of a memorial for the Gujarat 2002 riot victims.
In a statement issued under the Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust banner, political theorist Noam Chomsky and Sanskrit scholar Sheldon Pollack joined scores of academics and concerned citizens to express solidarity with Ms. Setalvad and Mr. Anand.
On their possible prosecution over charges of financial misappropriation, the statement said: “We see this as a clear case of the politics of vendetta launched with explicit intent to whitewash and efface from public memory the misdeeds of those who today wield political power in the State and at the Centre.”
Addressing a related meeting, former Additional Solicitor-General Indira Jaising said the two were being targeted because they had helped Zakia Jafri – widow of parliamentarian Ehsan Jafri, who was killed in the riots – get justice.
Questioning the rationale in trying to arrest the duo in a case based entirely on paperwork, she said the idea was to strike fear in the hearts of people who stand up to those currently in power. “It is not just to teach Teesta a lesson, but to all of us also,’’ she said, echoing a point made by the National Integration Council member John Dayal earlier. He underlined the fact that “Teesta has taken on not just the ruling apparatus but the king himself, Narendra Modi’’.
Of the view that freedom of expression is under attack from various quarters, editor of Jansatta Om Thanvi said the media could not afford to remain silent. “Remain silent now at your own peril,’’ he warned fellow journalists.
