Kannada filmmaker Kavitha Lankesh paused for a while, a lump in her throat, when she spoke about her sister Gauri Lankesh, the activist-journalist who was murdered outside her residence in Bengaluru last year.
The occasion was a discussion on ‘Gauri Lankesh: silencing of dissent,’ on the third day of the Kerala Literature Festival (KLF) here on Saturday.
“Gauri was being brave and this is what it brought her,” she said. “Killing a lonely woman in the night is cowardly; we had never expected it though we knew she was on the hit list.”
Ms. Lankesh said their father, P. Lankesh, was a stronger journalist than her, and he too had to face protests. However, during those days, there was a solidarity between workers, farmers, and weavers. “Gauri was unhappy about people turning into islands. She was glad to see young dissenters such as Jignesh Mevani and Shehla Rashid. If she was alive, she would have gone to campaign for Mr. Mevani and be happy about his victory.”
More dissenting voices, like that of actor Prakash Raj, were coming out in the open, signalling that Gauri’s views cannot be silenced, she said.
Multiple platforms
S. Anand, journalist-turned-publisher, said dissent did not need the so-called corporate media; there were multiple platforms for the purpose. “In TV shows in the US, they make fun of their President Donald Trump. In India, it is not possible to criticise Prime Minister Narendra Modi. You need to be afraid about even talking about him. Forget dissent, we cannot even say anything. This is a dangerous phase where we need to watch what we say,” he said.
Journalist Sashi Kumar quoted Bertolt Breht to drive home the point that the politics of dissent was here to stay, “Will there be singing in the dark times? Yes, there will be singing of the dark times.”
Describing Kanhaiya Kumar as a dissenter “who took our political imagination by storm,” Mr. Sashi Kumar said the former president of the JNU Students Union was fighting the “fascist trends of our times.” They were participating in a session on the need to dissent in democracy.
Mr. Kanhaiya Kumar said revolution did not depend on any individual and that it was an evolutionary process and it came through collective effort. “It is not dependant on charisma,” he said. “I don’t think I will bring revolution, society will. In a democracy, there should be dissent.”
