Holding placards that read, “Your bullets don’t scare us”, “I say no to fear and hatred”, “Silence is not an option” and “She never bowed down”, hundreds protested at Jantar Mantar on Thursday against the assassination of journalist Gauri Lankesh outside her Bengaluru home on Tuesday.
The protest was organised by the organisers of the #NotInMyName campaign, Saba Dewan, Rahul Roy, Sanjay Kak, Amitee and a few others. Journalists, writers, poets and others voiced their anger on the stage. Some journalists wore t-shirts with the words “I will still go on writing...” to show solidarity.
The event was opened by Mr. Kak, who spoke of Ms. Lankesh’s courage, saying, “We must honour her fully for who she was today. We shall remember her today as Gauri, as who she was, not as Lankesh, the name she carried.”
‘Brace for the future’
Asking the protesters to brace for the future, he added, “Today’s protest is a mourning but also a platform for us to prepare for the future. The warning that was orange has now turned red.”
Ms. Dewan said, “Ms. Lankesh’s murder is a manifestation of all that we stand against. Since our first protest, we have been protesting against this hatred and this very violence.”
“We’re now beyond calculating causes and effects. The hatred we conveniently ignore over social media is not very distanced from a real murder. This is the very hate defining people’s behaviour,” Mr. Roy added.
“These are dangerous times. In the 69 years I’ve spent in the nation, I’ve seen a much nicer and gentler India. Issues like poverty have always been there but people weren’t murdered openly for voicing their opinions,” said Sheela Joshi, a 69-year-old woman who was sitting in the audience.
Various poets filled the evening with their poetry. Poet and journalist Preetpal Kaur said, “We will not let Ms. Lankesh’s efforts go waste. We will mourn her, but more than that we will celebrate her life and her courage.”
Speaking about the various protests organised in the Capital on Wednesday, Monobina Gupta of The Wire said, “Seeing so many journalists come together for this cause was heart-warming. But it’s important that while we mourn her we also identify the pattern of these murders. While our team was writing about her on Wednesday, all her courage came back to us. Even though most of us hadn’t met with her, we identified with her.”
Giving Ms. Lankesh the status of a martyr, poet Manglesh Dabral said, “The same mentality that murdered Ms. Lankesh on Tuesday is responsible for the murder of Gandhi years ago. It seems as if we’re moving towards another deadly Partition of the country.”
He stated that Ms. Lankesh’s brother Indrajit’s reports to various news channels were nothing but an attempt to derail investigations.
Activist Kavita Krishnan, who is the secretary of the All India Progressive Women’s Association (AIPWA), said, “It’s very difficult for me to write about Ms. Lankesh’s death. I, along with many others, am on the same hate list as she was. And we will wear it as a badge of honour.”
She also pointed out that it was more important to “find the people who handed Ms. Lankesh’s killers the guns”.
Ms. Krishnan urged the audience to see the denial of the government on the matter as an affirmation of the work they’re doing and said, “We strike fear in their hearts and will continue to do so.”
Student activist Umar Khalid, whom Ms. Lankesh often called her ‘son’, mourned her death saying, “I am so disheartened that I don’t know how I will bear the loss. I’m disheartened to know that the next time I visit Bengaluru she won’t invite me over for dinner.”
He asked, “How many more protests before Prime Minister [Narendra] Modi opens his mouth again? How much more time before he condemns an unlawful killing?... The attack was not on Ms. Lankesh. The bullet was actually launched at the Constitution.”
News of another attack
In the midst of the programme, the news of attempted murder of journalist Pankaj Mishra in Bihar’s Arwal district sent chills down the spine of the audience.
Mohammad Aamir Khan, the author of Framed As a Terrorist, claimed Ms. Lankesh had expressed the desire to translate his book into Kannada. The book describes his struggles during 14 years’ in jail after being wrongly accused as terrorist.
He said, “She told me some months back that she was ready with the translation and we could release the book in October. I believe her murderers have not succeeded in their motive...She’s going to be alive in our hearts and in the pages of the book.”
The nearly two-hour-long event saw participation by the elderly and the youth alike. Various protests were organised in here on Wednesday, including a protest at the Press Club and a candle march at India Gate.