Mangaluru: Today if our country is threatened, it is because of forces that are fostering fear, pestering hatred and attacking ideologies. They don’t want us to question, they don’t want us to question the system, inequality and injustice. Questioning them is termed as disloyalty towards the country, said Teesta Setalvad, journalist and civil right activist.

Teesta was addressing at the decennial celebrations of St Aloysius Institution of Education, on Tuesday.
Teesta, who commenced her speech with Rabindranath Tagore’s poem ‘Where the mind is without fear’, said that a section of people are pressing down on others and values of Constitution are not followed. “Constitution says India is a country for all, where caste, religion and monetary status don’t determine citizenship of individual,” she said while calling upon teachers to teach values of Constitution to students.
Taking on religious extremists and recent deaths, she said on January 30, 1948, Mahatma Gandhi was shot dead. Everybody knew who killed Gandhiji and today some people admire him despite knowing he was an assailant. Journalist and activist Gauri Lankesh too met the same fate, she said.

“Even seventy years after Independence, some forces are threatening those who question hierarchy, who dare and raise voice in favour of marginalised and the poor. My country, your country and our country is flung back to abyss. We need to question this hatred,” she said.