Justice will be done to Gauri Lankesh when her killers are convicted, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has said.
He was speaking at the Gauri Lankesh memorial event to mark the sixth anniversary of her assassination, on Tuesday. He expressed confidence that given the chargesheet filed in the case was good and evidence strong, the killers of not just Gauri Lankesh, but of M.M. Kalburgi, Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare will be convicted very soon.
The Chief Minister’s statement comes amidst dissatisfaction over prolonged trial and demands for a special fast track court. However, he was silent on this demand.
“Those who killed Gauri Lankesh are of the same persuasion as those who killed Mahatma Gandhi. Why did they kill them? Because they were fighting for communal harmony in the country,” Mr. Siddaramaiah said, adding the same forces were now writing threat letters to writers creating a sense of fear and foreboding among them, on which he has ordered a probe. “Whatever be the political backing they may have, we will not spare anyone to create fear among writers, activists or do moral policing in the State,” he said.
Recounting his association with P. Lankesh and Gauri Lankesh, he said Gauri met him many times when he was Chief Minister during his previous tenure, but never asked for any personal favours. “She always demanded government intervention on behalf of the voiceless,” he said.
On Sanatana Dharma
CPI (M) leader from Kerala Shailaja Teacher obliquely responded to the controversy over Tamil Nadu Minister Udayanidhi Stalin’s remarks over Sanatana Dharma. She said if Sanatana Dharma meant “Varnashrama Dharma”, which divided people into a deeply hierarchical structure, then it could never be accepted.
“The Sanatana Dharma propagated by the Sangh Parivar was a poor disguise of upper caste supremacy,” she said, lamenting the fight to save democracy and the constitution during the celebration of 75 years of independence was such a sad comment of the times. She said the incumbent regime sought to replace Mahatma Gandhi with V.D. Savarkar, which would be fought tooth and nail.
‘Doubled violence’
Activist Angela Rangad, from Meghalaya, was the voice from North East India, given the strife in Manipur, at the event on Tuesday. “The idea of India where a small community like ours [the Khasis] could not only have a voice but a socio economic stake in this vast country, seems very distant under this regime. The double engine government that has replaced federalism has only doubled violence, divide and strife. This complicity of the government is deliberate and by design,” she said, adding recent visits to strife torn Manipur gave one the feeling that Manipur was an experiment in North East India, to create an environment conducive for the exploitation of natural resources by corporate interests.
Gauri Lankesh’s family members Kavita Lankesh, Indira Lankesh, farmer leader Rakesh Tikait and Teesta Setalwad, president of the Gauri Memorial Trust, were also present at the event.
