Mangaluru, Oct 25: Civil rights activists and journalist Teesta Setalvad exhorted upon the “overwhelming good people” to speak against injustice and violence instead of remaining silent whenever indignity being propagated.
The Padma Shri recipient anti-communalism crusader was speaking at the decennial college day celebration at St Aloysius High School in the city on Tuesday.
She said that now the country is threatened by forces that are fostering fear, festering hatred and attacking reason. “They do not want us to question the structures of inequity and injustice and they want us to believe that questioning the regime in power is disloyal to the nation… But, we should speak out peacefully.”
Referring to the murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh she said that it showed that forces which killed Mahatma Gandhi were still active.
Mohalla committees
She said that there is a need to re-visit the Bhiwandi experiment of forming mohalla committees to prevent communal clashes especially during the election time.
“When Bombay was burning in communal clashes in 1992-93, its neighbouring Bhiwandi once known for communal clashes was calm. It was owing to forming mohalla committees by a police official named Suresh Khopade involving all community members,” she pointed out.
The mohalla committee members were in touch with police and administration on daily basis to prevent clashes. Whenever rumour mongering started and whenever the build-up of conflict began the committee members came together and put “moral weight and pressure” on police and administration to observe peace and rule of law. It was especially so during the election time. She suggested that the same experiment should be emulated in other places.
“It is my humble experience that today the administration and police are buckling under those pressure of a negative kind that are trying to break down the rule of law. Peace warriors like you and me, who might not want this hatred, have been numbed into silence,” she said.
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