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Gauri Lankesh is immortalised in the pages to be read

Gauri Lankesh is immortalised in the pages to be read

Gauri LankeshBy Saket Suman,

The week gone by marked the first death anniversary of braveheart Gauri Lankesh, whose murder shook the nation and thrust her in the limelight — but all too late. The ringmasters of the well-planned murder as well as the actual offenders of the horrendous act remain at large, or yet-to-be-proven-guilty, but her passing has left a void in the lives of those who knew her closely, and those who discovered her thereafter in the pages she penned.

The brutal act continues to face widespread and vociferous condemnation. Notably, it is not an anti-establishment protest, far from anti-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) too — instead, it is the people’s appeal to the regime to serve them what the constitution guarantees. If anything, it is a protest against the forces attempting to curb free speech, and therefore the government — tasked as it is to uphold constitutional rights and beliefs — should, ideally, dedicate itself willfully to the cause.

While the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has shown no concrete inclination to express its slightest displeasure, if at all, for such gruesome attacks, the pages of future history are forever maligned by other similar attacks that continue to surface even after Lankesh’s untimely passing.

The government may hide behind the veil of doing actual work than talking, but the fact remains that silence can sometimes be misinterpreted as indirect approval, further inciting violence and threats. Or so the events of recent past suggest. The government’s track record of upholding free speech is not sound either.

One vociferous statement, like the Prime Minister’s historic speech on the eve of November 8, 2016, announcing the demonetisation of high-value currency notes, would perhaps have given much more strength to the advocates of free speech than the sum total of all protests they attend.

The condemnation that followed the killings of three rational thinkers — M.M. Kalburgi, Govind Pansare and Narendra Dabholkar — which snowballed into the award wapsi protest in 2015, was met with constant blows along the way.

In one instance, actor and BJP parliamentarian Paresh Rawal directly provoked violence against writer-activist Arundhati Roy by saying that the Booker-winning novelist should be tied to the jeep instead of stone- pelters in the Kashmir Valley.

While, on the one hand, criticism of the army was opposed as threats to India’s sovereignty, on the other hand, there was not even a word of condemnation from the government. Rawal stuck to his stance even in interviews thereafter, a shock to many fans of his excellent work in cinema.

Since when did such provocative statements directly inciting violence become the accepted norm? And, by the way, since when did it become wrong to utter a word of criticism against the army?

And then the fateful day of September 5, 2017, arrived when Lankesh was murdered.

Her former husband Chidanand Rajghatta penned a book in her memory “Illiberal India: Gauri Lankesh and the Age of Unreason”, bringing to fore the rather obscured life of the veteran journalist-cum-activist. Adding a personal touch that only Rajghatta, who lived with Lankesh as a couple for five years, could, the book provides an insight into the firebrand personality that Lankesh was.

The running theme throughout its pages, however, remains — the void that has been created since she was slain.

But if she had not been the target of her assassins, she might well have lived an eventful life fighting for the causes that she did and, like many social activists do, die in oblivion. Her untimely death sparked public outrage.

However, those who lamented her death and called upon the government to punish the offenders became the target of vitriol and online trolls. The saga of making the unaccepted accepted that Rawal began, returned to mock Lankesh’s sacrifice as voices of dissent were, and are, publicly made fun of, ridiculed, called names and trolled.

Since when did it become wrong to condemn a killing? Since when did non-violent sermons become the norm in the country for whose freedom Gandhi dedicated his life to? And with that potent tool — ahimsa?

Lankesh may have died, but the cycle of events post her death points to the fact that, if anything, her murder has only immortalised her in the pages to be read, discussed and studied by generations to come. And the journey has already begun.

Spanning the length and breadth of the country, numerous seminars, literary forums and events of similar kind were, and are being held. Lankesh’s writings have been reproduced, translated and compiled in several anthologies by mainstream publishers in English as well as Indian Languages.

All of this suggest that Gauri Lankesh will have a legendary presence in the life of perhaps everybody growing up today. Books will, of course, be the primary medium.

(Saket Suman is a Principal Correspondent at IANS. The views expressed are personal. He can be contacted at saket.s@ians.in)

—IANS

Reject ‘Hindutva’ that is causing violence: Nayantara Sahgal

Reject ‘Hindutva’ that is causing violence: Nayantara Sahgal

Nayantara Sahgal

Nayantara Sahgal

Kolkata : Describing the current political situation as “not conducive for anybody”, veteran writer Nayantara Sahgal has called for rejecting the idea of “Hindutva” which is “creating violence” and has “nothing to do with Hinduism”.

“Right now, it is a very different situation. In the present political situation, the forces are trying to stamp out all dissent and disagreement. People who disagree with them are being killed. The last person was Gauri Lankesh.

“Not only writers, people who are transporting cattle have been killed. On suspicion of storing beef, people are being killed,” the writer told IANS.

“Remedy is to throw out Hindutva and reject it. This is creating violence. It is a very dangerous ideology and has nothing to do with Hinduism. Many writers have been speaking and writing against this ideology,” Sahgal said on the sidelines of the Apeejay Kolkata Literary Festival 2018 here on Saturday evening.

She said Hinduism was “not a terrorist creed” and did not advocate violence.

“The current (political) situation is not conducive not for just writers but for anybody. Anybody, they don’t like, they file cases against them. There is persecution and murder and (there is) a very evil political climate,” Sahgal said.

The much feted writer said India at the time of independence decided to put democracy before development and it also decided to be secular. “This is something to be proud of.”

During the session of ‘Women Writers: Shaping a New India’ at the Festival, an award – the Prabha Khaitan Woman’s Voice Award – in Association with Oxford Bookstore, was announced.

Applauding the initiative, she said: “I always hate to put a dividing line between men and women. Maybe, it is because that in my family men strongly believe about woman’s rights. I always firmly believe in a partnership between men and women.”

She also said that gender and class were not at all limiting factors while a particular writer writes about specific gender or class.

During the interaction, she said: “I have found from what I read that writers from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria are much more politically engaged with their political situations than Indian writers are with Indian situations.

“I don’t know whether it is a correct assessment. But what I have read that seems to me… They have written very powerfully about various political situations in their countries.”

—IANS

Critical need to ensure freedom of India’s free press

Critical need to ensure freedom of India’s free press

Frank Islam speaking at the Alfred Friendly Fellowship graduating-event in Washington. (Photo -americanbazaaronline.com)

By Frank F. Islam,

As an Indian American, I have had the privilege of living in the two largest democracies in the world. One of those, the United States of America, came into being in part because of the free press. The other, India, has the reputation of having the most vibrant and free press in the developing world.

Since its establishment as a free nation, the free press in India has grown substantially and contributed significantly to the evolution of Indian democracy. Sadly, in recent times, the freedom of India’s free press is seen to have been under threat.

In September this year, well known journalist and activist Gauri Lankesh and television reporter Santanu Bhowmik were killed in separate incidents. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based NGO, over the past 25 years, there have been “41 instances” in which Indian journalists have been murdered “in direct reprisal for his or her work”.

Combine this violence upon journalists with a raid on the homes and offices of the founders of NDTV, India’s oldest television news station, by the Central Bureau of Investigation in June this year for “an alleged loss” incurred by a private bank and there is some cause for concern regarding the freedom of the press in India. The New York Times highlighted this in an editorial on the raid that began, “Press freedom in India suffered a fresh blow on Monday…”

Freedom House, an organisation that evaluates countries in terms of their freedom of the press, rated India’s press status as only “partially free” in 2016 and gave it a score of 40, with 0 being the best and 100 being the worst. Consider some key developments:

  •  The killing of at least two journalists in connection with their work
  •  A Supreme Court ruling to retain criminal defamation, despite calls for decriminalisation
  •  Journalists in Chhattisgarh facing tremendous pressure with some relocating due to concerns for their safety
  • Heavy-handed restrictions on the press in Jammu and Kashmir with newspapers being shut down and a clampdown on mobile internet services

In sum, the news about the freedom of India’s free press is not very good. Maybe that’s not so bad one might think. Is freedom of the press such a big deal?

Absolutely! In fact, it is almost impossible to overstate the importance of the free press to a vibrant and vital democracy.

Let me elaborate on why the free press is so essential by using a quote from the Newseum, a wonderful museum in Washington, D.C. In the Newseum is the following etched statement:

“The Free Press is a cornerstone of democracy. People have the need to know. Journalists have the right to tell. Finding the facts can be difficult. Reporting the story can be dangerous. Freedom includes the right to be outrageous. Responsibility includes the right to be fair. News is history in the making. Journalists provide the first draft of history. A Free Press, at its very best, reveals the truth.”

The Constitution of India makes no specific reference to freedom of the press. Article 19 of the Indian Constitution, on the other hand, guarantees the right to freedom of speech and expression and since then there have been several Supreme Court judgements that have interpreted this article to also include freedom of the press.

There is also an emerging consensus that over the past few years that freedom of the press has been hamstrung. This is neither consistent with the Constitution nor healthy for Indian democracy.

The citizens of India gave the United States and the world a lesson in democracy by turning out in record numbers to vote in the last national elections of 2014. As we move towards 2019, it is time for the current administration in India to give another lesson in democracy by ensuring and guaranteeing the freedom of the free press as an exemplar to the rest of the world.

India remains a vibrant democracy, in large part because of the resilience of its questioning press. The free press is critical to the future of India and its citizens. We should praise the free press, not bury it. There are others who want to do the opposite.

Journalists should not stop asking the hard questions and writing the tough stories. They have the responsibility to seek and report the truth. We need journalists now more than ever. The overriding responsibility of the media is to separate fact from fiction and to hold governments and leaders to the same standards.

(Frank Islam is an entrepreneur, civic leader and thought leader based in the Washington, D.C., area. The views expressed are personal. He can be contacted atffislam@verizon.net)

SIT releases sketches of Lankesh murder suspects

SIT releases sketches of Lankesh murder suspects

SIT releases sketches of Lankesh murder suspectsBengaluru : The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the murder last month of journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh on Saturday released three sketches of two persons suspected to be her killers.

“Three sketches of two suspects have been made on the basis of their description by eyewitness accounts and the CCTV footage obtained. Two sketches of one suspect were made by two sketch-makers as per eyewitness accounts,” SIT head and Inspector General of Police (IGP) B.K. Singh told reporters here.

Lankesh, 55, editor of Kannada weekly tabloid “Gauri Lankesh Patrike” was shot dead outside her house in the city’s southwest suburb on the night of September 5, sparking outrage and nationwide protests.

“We have got video clips of a motorcycle rider who is suspected to be involved in the commission of the offence,” asserted Singh.

Giving an account of the investigation conducted over the last one month, Singh said the suspects, aged between 25-35 years, were residing in the city for at least one week before they committed the crime.

“It is suspected that these persons stayed in the area near the residence of Gauri Lankesh,” he said.

They carried out a “recce” around Lankesh’s home prior to committing the crime, he said.

The SIT has interrogated more than 200-250 people as part of the investigation so far, added Singh.

“We request the public to help us find their hideouts in the city,” he added.

He also asserted that the 150-member SIT is carrying out the investigation “without any bias and is hunting for the suspects based on the sketches”.

“We are investigating only on the basis of evidence, and are not looking at any particular institution behind these suspects,” Singh asserted.

Asked if the SIT could find any link between Lankesh’s murder to the killings of rationalist Narendra Dabholkar (shot dead in 2013), and scholar M.M. Kalburgi (shot dead in 2015), he said, “Till date, we could not find any such links.”

He said “there is a personal angle, a professional angle, and an activist angle” that they are probing in the murder, adding, “So far, we have ruled out the professional angle, which has to do with her journalism (meaning that no professional rivalry led to her murder).”

The team is investigating “all the angles with a free mind”, he said.

“We have started our investigation based on the CCTV footage that was obtained from outside Gauri Lankesh’s residence. We have gone through at least 75 terabytes (TB) of video footage so far from various surveillance cameras around the locality.”.

Along with sketches of the suspects, the SIT has also released to the public two video clips captured through CCTVs around the locality of Lankesh’s residence showing a motor cycle rider wearing a helmet.

Those sharing any information that could lead to the killers shall be rewarded as announced by the state government, he said.

In September, Home Minister of Karnataka Ramalinga Reddy had announced that the state government had decided to reward Rs 10 lakh to anyone providing information and clues to Lankesh’s killers.

“It is due to the public help that we have reached this far in the probe and could release the sketches of the suspects,” Singh added.

“Public is requested to share any information they may have related to the suspects or the motor cycle used by them on the number 9480800202 and on email sit.glankesh@ksp.gov.in,” Singh said.

A day after the murder, the state government had formed a SIT under the state’s Crime Investigation Department (CID) to probe the murder with inter-state ramifications as the suspects could be from within Karnataka or other states.

The SIT has IGP Singh as its head and Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) M.N. Anucheth as the main Investigation Officer (IO).

—IANS