Family members, student-activists, lawyers, and friends of Gauri Lankesh held a memorial service on Sunday to remember the activist-journalist who was assassinated four years ago on September 5.
“The very act of remembering Gauri Lankesh is an act of resistance as the incumbent regime wants us to forget those who stood up to power and dissent, as if they never happened,” said Natasha Narwal, a student-activist who was incarcerated for 13 months in a Delhi riots case and recently released on bail.
She was speaking at ‘Bullets cannot kill Gauri Lankesh’s legacy’, a memorial event organised by the Gauri Memorial Trust. The event saw three student-activists — Ms. Narwal, Devangana Kalita, and Asif Iqbal Tanha, jailed and out on bail in the Delhi riots cases — speak on Gauri’s legacy. “In her last days, Gauri had adopted Umar Khalid, Kanhaiya Kumar, and Jignesh Mewani as her sons. I am sure, if she were to be around, she would have adopted you as well. It is in student-activists like you, she saw hope for this country. Now, I do too,” said Kavita Lankesh.
Ms. Kalita said Gauri transgressed all the ‘Lakshman Rekhas’ that the Hindutva imposed on women. “We see such ‘Lakshman Rekhas’ only intensifying these days, in the way women who speak the language of rights, who take to the streets, are attacked. The violent attack on the anti-CAA movement, almost entirely led by women in Delhi, is a testament to this. Gauri Lankesh is a symbol of such transgressions,” she said.
Ms. Narwal said the incumbent regime was not only criminalising dissent, but was also seeking more control over our everyday lives and the choices we make. “The regime wants to control what we eat, who we can marry. Through incendiary messages via the media and WhatsApp, citizens are being pushed to assume vigilante roles in micro settings, making people suspicious of each other. We need to fight against this as well,” she said.
Mr. Tanha, recounting his experience in the prison, said the State was criminalising everyone who spoke of their rights, identity issues, etc. “I have seen many innocent people languishing in jail. If this continues, jails will be filled with students, activists, and intellectuals rather than criminals,” he said.
