DNA 15FEB2015
PG 09
A
life less ordinary
Following the rejection of her
anticipatory bail in a cheating case and the intervention of the Supreme Court,
Malavika Sangghvi writes to human rights activist Teesta Setalvad
Malavika
Sangghvi
Dear Teesta,
I write this on a day when the
Supreme Court has had to step in and stay your arrest by deferring the hearing
on your anticipatory bail plea till February 19, after the Gujarat High Court
had rejected your petition for anticipatory bail and a posse of police from
Gujarat arrived at your home this week.
Yesterday, when one of your
supporters expressed concern about your imminent arrest, somehow, without any
real evidence to the contrary, I assured him that nothing would happen and that
you would not be arrested.
I did this only from a gut feeling
that justice would prevail and that one of the most courageous human rights
icons of our time would be spared the ignominy of being arrested in a cheating
case!
The thing is Teesta, even though we
share so many things in common — having grown up in Mumbai, that too in its
leafy suburb of Juhu and having attended the same university and entered
journalism at around the same time — our paths have seldom converged.
From a very early stage, you opted
out of mainstream media to pursue your interests in human and civil rights
activism, founding, amongst other things, Communalism Combat and Citizens for
Justice and Peace.
But of course, it is for your role
in the Gujarat carnage that you have been most known. From 2002 till now, you
have stood unshaken like a wraith, your haunting eyes a reminder of all the
lives lost in one of the great blots of communal violence and hate crimes.
Through all the intricacies of the
court battles to bring justice to the victims in the Best Bakery and Gulbarg
society cases, through the ascension of Modi from Gujarat CM to India’s Prime
Minister, feted on the international stage, through the triumphalism and
hurrahs of an India all set to become a world super power and a utopia of right
wing policies and practices, you have stood unmoved, unrelenting, reminding us
of the sins against humanity that all the perfumes of Arabia cannot wash away.
And for this, your life has been
turned upside down. Daily court cases to fight; witnesses to protect against
threats and bribes; your motives and personal integrity questioned; and what’s
worst of all, as a measure of the State’s dirty tricks department, you have
been accused of cheating and misappropriation of funds of the very people that
you have dedicated your life to empowering!
Of course, this does not mean your
acts of selfless dedication and altruism have not been recognised nationally
and internationally either. From the Padma Shri in 2007 to the International
Nuremberg Human Rights Award, the Defender of Democracy Award by Parliamentarians
for Global Action, the 2004 M.A. Thomas National Human Rights Award from the
Vigil India Movement, The Nani A Palkhivala Award, The Chameli Devi Jain Award
for outstanding woman journalist, the Maharana Mewar Foundation’s Hakim Khan
Sur Award, the Human Rights Award of the Dalit Liberation Education Trust and
the Pax Christi International Peace Award, you have been recognised for your
acts of human rights activism.
I began this letter by stating that
we share a somewhat similar background as far as education, early choice of
profession and place of residence, etc, are concerned, but there is one
significant difference, Teesta: whereas you embraced a life of activism and
political discourse, I, growing up in a household of too much activism and
political struggle, wearied of it all and opted out of it.
So while you stood there, fighting
the good fight, taking the blows, never giving in, never giving up, I went
about my life trying to live it away from all of that, in the pursuit of
ordinary days and ordinary ways and in inner peace and harmony.
Except of course, on a few
occasions, such as this one when I turn my back on all of that and enter the
fray by writing you this letter of support and admiration!
But then rules are meant to be
broken, right? Here’s wishing you a Sunday spent in ordinary peace, happiness
and yes — freedom and dignity!
With every good wish, etc,
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