One of the people who have consistently sought justice for the victims of the 2002 Gujarat pogrom is Teesta Setalvad. As one would expect, she faced harassment at the hands of the government. Fortunately, she didn’t give up. In this extract from Foot Soldier of the Constitution: A Memoir (also available in Hindi), she talks about the treatment meted out to her.
Being their Target
I had a premonition on 24 July 2015, the day of the hearing before the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) c[...]
In the times when the government institutions are happily dismantling the democratic values enshrined in the constitution of the country, renowned civil rights activist Teesta Setalvad was detained by police in Varanasi yesterday. She was in Varanasi to attend a youth training camp organized by Samajvadi Jana Parishad and to deliver a speech on 'Communalism and Education'. Teesta Setalvad, in a Facebook live, said that she had been arrested on the orders of the higher authority. On 21st Septem[...]
Teesta Setalvad’s memoir – Foot Soldier of the Constitution – is already in its second printing. We anticipate that we’re going to have to tax our printer with a great many orders for this book. There is a good reason why people are interested in Teesta’s story. The ruling party has so fundamentally vilified her at the same time as she has been an essential voice for the stifled justice in Gujarat. Finally, Teesta is able to tell her story in her own words without having to answer one [...]
Dear friends,
We have opened our year with a publication that has been long anticipated – Teesta Setalvad’s Foot Soldier of the Constitution: A Memoir.
The book has already been widely reviewed all favorably and is on the road to appear in Gujarati, Hindi, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, and a host of other languages. Teesta’s book tells an intimate story of a young woman from an important legal family who goes on the quest of journalism only to be dragged into the world of the la[...]
Here's the transcript of the interview:
On Teesta Setalvad's Memoirs:
For the past two years I have been editing Teesta Setalvad's memoirs. The reason, we at Leftword, were very excited about this book is that during the summer of 2013 and into 2014, there was a demonization of Teesta in the media, mainly by BJP politicians. One heard about a person called Teesta that those of us who worked with her couldn't recognize. We thought that it’s important for her to tell her real story so t[...]