The protest against murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh at the Press Club of India in New Delhi on Wednesday. (Express Photo/Prem Nath Pandey)
A day after journalist and activist Gauri Lankesh was shot dead in Bengaluru, the national capital saw multiple protests on Wednesday, with the biggest one at Press Club of India (PCI), where hundreds of journalists and civil society members took a vow that they would not be scared or silenced.
The PCI, Indian Women’s Press Corps and other organisations issued a memorandum to the Karnataka chief minister, which states: “The murder has sent shock waves among the journalist community for its brazenness as well as (the fact that) it has involved the killing of a woman journalist known for her outspoken views. She was a firm believer in the Indian Constitution and the values of democracy and secularism enshrined in it.. We…urge you to put in all efforts to nab the killers at the earliest.”
Earlier in the day, another protest was organised outside PCI, along with a candlelight vigil at the India Gate.
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Among senior journalists present at the PCI event were Siddharth Varadarajan, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Ravish Kumar and Barkha Dutt, along with political leaders such as Sitaram Yechury (CPI-M), D Raja, Ashutosh and Yogendra Yadav.
Several speakers drew parallels between murders of Lankesh and those of Communist leader Govind Pansare, anti-superstition activist Narendra Dabholkar and rationalist M M Kalburgi. Lankesh ran a magazine called ‘Gauri Lankesh Patrike’ and was critical of right-wing ideology. Pansare’s daughter Megha was among those who joined in solidarity.
Varadarajan said, “There should be no doubt that she (Lankesh) was attacked for her work as a journalist…. She was made a target because she was asking questions, and asking questions is the most dangerous occupation right now.”
He urged more journalists to ask questions, arguing that if lakhs did so, it would not be easy to target individuals.
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Calling the murder a “defining moment in the history of Indian media”, Guha Thakurta said, “They want to silence people who want to speak truth to power. We cannot remain silent, because that is what they want — don’t keep quiet, we cannot let Gauri’s murder go in vain.”
Ravish Kumar and Barkha Dutt spoke about social media “trolls”. Kumar said he is “disappointed in the Prime Minister” for following a troll who had used a derogatory word to describe Lankesh. He urged the PM to stop following such trolls. Dutt also focused on trolling and said people needed to stop ignoring them, and instead “stand up, speak up and report” the trolls.
Earlier in the day, addressing people outside PCI, senior advocate Prashant Bhushan said, “People are getting the courage to kill Gauri Lankesh because those responsible for murders of Pansare, Dabholkar and Kalburgi have still not been caught and punished.”
Journalist Ajoy Bose called it a “political execution”, while Manini Chatterjee termed Lankesh the “first journalist martyr of new India”.
Speaking at different protests, JNU students Kanhaiya Kumar and Umar Khalid said Lankesh considered them her “sons”. Khalid said the murder is meant to scare dissidents but added that he is not scared and would continue to “carry forward Gauri Lankesh’s struggle”. Kumar said, “Even if we were to believe all this (that Lankesh was Maoist sympathiser), it is the duty of the police and judiciary to decide illegality. Who has given people the right to shoot someone?”
