The recent murder of veteran journalist Gauri Lankesh in Bengaluru is an act of terrorism and cannot be seen as an individual assassination, said N. Ram, Chairman of Kasturi & Sons Ltd., on Sunday. He called for a fair investigation.
Unveiling a portrait of Gauri Lankesh at a condolence meeting organised by the Dravidar Kazhagam here, Mr. Ram cited a report by Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), which showed that at least 27 journalists were killed since 1992 and there had not been a single conviction.
“Can’t a journalist have a rationalist and secular view which is guided by reason? If they have those views, they are termed as activists,” he said.
Mr. Ram said the motive behind the murder was to suppress alternative views and threaten people. There had been a pattern in the murders of Gauri Lankesh, Narendra Dabholkar, CPI leader Govind Pansare and scholar M.M. Kalburgi. “The pattern should be broken through a detailed investigation of the tragic murder of Gauri Lankesh and punishing the organisations and people behind it,” Mr. Ram said.
He said one of the answers would be to provide security to journalists, but it had a lot of issues such as causing hindrance to their independence. “The larger answers should be found in politics, in upholding the principles of rationalism, progressive ideas, principles of free speech, independent and bold journalism, and that cannot be intimidated by terrorist acts like this,” he added. Dravidar Kazhagam president K. Veeramani also called for a thorough investigation.