Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Teesta slams both fronts for links with fundamentalists

Teesta Setalvad

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Human rights activist Teesta Setalvad on Sunday slammed the Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the United Democratic Front (UDF) for associating with fundamentalists in the Lok Sabha elections in Kerala.

Addressing a meet-the-press programme organised by the Kesari Memorial Journalists’ Trust here, she said the links the LDF had established with the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the UDF with the National Democratic Front for electoral gains spelled tragedy for the State.

The LDF had forfeited its moral authority to combat communalism by associating with the PDP, she said, adding that minority communalism was in no way less dangerous than majority communalism, because minority communalism would always add fuel to majority communalism. It was indeed sad that such a turn should happen to Kerala politics, she said.

Referring to a petition she and the widow of the slain politician Elsan Jaffri had filed in the Supreme Court, Ms. Setalvad said the apex court’s order on it last month asking a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate into the alleged role of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in the 2002 communal carnage in that State was a victory for secular forces in the country.

She said she had full faith in the integrity of R. Raghavan, former chief of the CBI, who headed the SIT formed by the Supreme Court to re-investigate the Godhra train burning case and the post-Godhra communal killings of 2002 in Gujarat.

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