Gauri Lankesh murder: Voices across India clamour for justice

Moneycontrol News 

The murder of senior journalist Gauri Lankesh has sparked mass protests across states in India with journalists, activists, citizens and the civil society demanding a special investigation and condemning the Central government's inability to protect the journalists and rationalists.

A journalist and activist Gauri Lankesh was a staunch critic of Bharatiya Janata Party, Rashtriya Swamsevak Sangh and affirmed an anti-Hindutva stance as she wrote for a Kannada weekly Lankesh Patrike in Bangalore, Karnataka.

In 2008, BJP leaders Prahlad Joshi and Umesh Dushi had filed defamation cases on her for the publication of an article carrying the alleged involvement of these leaders in criminal activities.

On Tuesday, unknown assailants shot four rounds at her in front of her residence at Rajeshwari Nagar in Bangalore.

On Wednesday, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah ordered a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the brutal killing of Gauri Lankesh.

Protests erupted on Tuesday and Wednesday in key locations of major cities in the country- Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata- amid ongoing agitation in front of Gauri Lankesh' residence.

Lankesh' murder reminded the protesters of the murder of rationalist Narendra Dhabolkar in 2013, Communist Party of India leader Govind Pansare in 2015 and the shooting of MM Kalburgi in 2015.

The murder of Kalburgi, author and the former vice-chancellor of Hampi University, still remains unsolved. Strangely, media reports have suggested that the gun used in all these murders were the same.

In the Amphitheatre at Carter Road in Mumbai, protests on Wednesday saw film actors Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das along with civil rights activist and journalist Teesta Setalvad holding placards and shouting slogans demanding the freedom to write, speak and eat.

Shabana Azmi told the Indian Express: "Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare, MM Kalburgi and now Gauri Lankesh. There’s a trend emerging from these murders — of not just silencing but killing people who speak their minds."

Another gathering took place near the Mumbai Press Club where journalists and citizens held a candlelight vigil in the evening.

In Kerala, political leaders from the CPIM and Congress held several protests at Thiruvananthapuram along with a journalists' rally in the capital city.

Kochi saw the gathering of artists to condemn the murder of Gauri Lankesh. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan told Indian Express: "She was killed at a time progressive and secular forces were gaining ground in Karnataka."

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee attended a protest rally held at the Press Club of Kolkata where journalists, activists, and citizens protested Lankesh' murder through a candlelight march.

The Journalist's Forum of Assam (JFA) in Guwahati, Assam also held a protest rally.

In Hyderabad, journalists took out a rally from the Press Club carrying placards reading "I am also Gauri". Another march was organized by the Hyderabad Working Journalists’ Union and the Civil Liberties Monitoring Committee (CLMC).

The Goa Union of Journalists (GUJ) condemned the murder by holding protests in Panaji. GUJ president told the Indian Express: "Democracy allows one the most fundamental right: the right to ask questions. When the voice of dissent is attacked, then all of us should come together to thwart such forces."

Similar protests of civil rights activists, journalists and students took place in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh and Pune, Maharashtra.

In the Press Club of India in New Delhi, several journalists gathered to condemn the death of journalist stating that Gauri's murder was a cause of fear in all journalists, free thinkers, rationals, and critics. Similar protests were held in the Press Club of Chennai beginning 11 am on Wednesday.