CPI (Maoist) denies role, says ‘Brahminical fascist goons’ behind Gauri Lankesh murder

“It is their lowly and dirty act to pressure and get her brother to hint at the possibility of Maoist hand in her murder,” said the release issued by CPI (Maoist).

The Communist Party of India (Maoist) has denied any role in the murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh, saying the claim was nothing but “propaganda by Hindu fascist forces when they themselves have killed her to muzzle the voice of pro-people forces”.

A release issued by Abhay, spokesman of the Central Committee of CPI (Maoist), recently, says: “The party strongly condemns the murder of Leftist, pro-people, progressive and democratic journalist Gauri Lankesh by Brahminical fascist goons of Sangh parivar protected by the BJP government at the Centre. The party appeals to all like-minded forces to pour out into the streets for a determined fight against the forces that killed Lankesh.”

Saying that Lankesh fearlessly campaigned for the downtrodden and the marginalised, against atrocities on minorities by Hindutva forces and corrupt governments, the party has stated, “Lankesh had become an eyesore for the Hindutva forces ever since she translated the book Gujarat Files by Gujarat journalist Rana Ayyub, exposing the involvement of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah in the Muslim carnage in 2002.”

“She had printed the matter in her publication in Kannada language. The fascist Hindutva hand (in her murder) is evident from the fact that BJP leader D N Yuvraj had said that she would have been alive had she not celebrated the death of RSS people.” The CPI (Maoist) targeted PM Modi for his silence on Lankesh’s murder, which it says was “indicative of the Hindutva hand in her murder”.

“It is their lowly and dirty act to pressure and get her brother to hint at the possibility of Maoist hand in her murder,” the release further says.

The party has rubbished the probe ordered into Lankesh’s killing, saying, “When the rulers themselves are complicit in it, everybody knows what is going to be the outcome of such a probe. That is the reason that till now, there has been no headway in the probe in the murders of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar, Leftist thinker Govind Pansare and progressive writer M M Kalburgi.” The party has called for intensifying the struggle against “fascist Hindutva forces” by all progressive and democratic forces beyond “symbolic protests” with “now-or-never” urgency.