Things To Know About Teesta Setalvad On Her Birthday

We wish journalist and civil rights activist Teesta Setalvad a very happy birthday today. Teesta has been in the news since 2002, after she testified at the United States Commission against the Gujarat government post the riots that killed and displaced thousands of people.

What you should know about Teesta:

- Born in 1962 in Mumbai, Teesta went to Mumbai University to graduate with a Bachelor's in Philosophy. Right after her graduation, she started working with different newspapers like The Daily, Indian Express and Business India magazine.

- In 1993, Teesta along with her husband, Javed Anand, started a monthly advocacy magazine called Communalism Combat.

- In 2002, when the Godhra riots affected thousands of people in Gujarat, Teesta, her husband and some others set up an NGO named Citizens for Justice and Peace. Claiming complicity of the ruling government in Gujarat, they litigated against the government.

We will study the judgment, we definitely believe that this is the case of criminal conspiracy and we will exercise our right of appeal in it 

- on the Gulbarg Society Case verdict

- The Best Bakery case was in the news for being targeted during the Gujarat violence, killing 14 people. The mob attacked the Muslims inside, including the Sheikh family that ran the bakery. It was an incident that stirred the whole nation in 2002.

One of the witnesses Yasmeen Shaikh filed a petition in the High Court, stating that she was "lured and misguided" into giving false testimony against the 17 accused by social activist Teesta Setalvad

Source: news18.com

- Apart from being in the limelight because of her voice against the ruling party in Gujarat during the riots, Teesta has also worked on her own project called Khoj (Quest) that aims to rewrite sections of Indian school History and Social Studies textbooks to remove "anti-minority prejudices".

- A proclaimed feminist, Teesta also came up with a forum called "Women in the Media Committee" that unites women journalists to address gender bias faced in the media industry.

- She has also been trapped in an embezzlement scandal. Accused of misappropriating funds from her own NGO in 2015, CBI was asked to probe the case who raided her mumbai residence.

Always in the news, Teesta sure has given us reasons to look out for her in the papers!

ALSO READ: End Female Genital Mutilation, Urges UN