The Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers’ Association (JNUTA) on Thursday expressed shock and anguish over the murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh and said she was an exemplary defender of the Constitution, civil liberties and human rights.
‘Censorship’
“Today that voice of reason and passion imbued with deep faith in Constitutional values has been silenced by a murderer’s bullets. We join our voices with the thousands that now ring out in strong condemnation of this assassination, this most extreme form of censorship,” the JNUTA said in a statement.
It added that many more people like Ms. Lankesh, M.M. Kalburgi, Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare were needed in our country today.
“It is time for all citizens to vigorously defend the right to freedom of expression everywhere, and in words and deeds assert their inalienable right to speak, to espouse causes, to listen, to disagree and to dissent, to change hearts and minds,” the association added.
Politics of hate, bigotry
It said that it renews its commitment to shouldering the responsibilities of teachers in general, and JNU teachers in particular, in creating a society and a citizenry that is humane, just, critical and informed, committed to the values of secularism and the annihilation of caste, and arraigned against the politics of hate and bigotry.