Representatives of several progressive organisations and individuals staged a demonstration near Mahatma Gandhi statue here on Monday condemning the government for the delay in the arrest of the killers of journalist Gauri Lankesh.
The agitation was held under the slogan “Those who killed Gandhi killed Gauri” as part of the demonstrations across the State and outside on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti to put pressure on the government for speedy investigation.
“The killers of Mahatma Gandhi and Gauri Lankesh are the same. It was right wing Hindutva forces that have been physically eliminating all those thinkers, scholars, journalists, activists, writers and social reformers who held Hindutva communalism as a regressive force and fought it. Rationalists Narendra Dabholkar and Govinda Pansare, Lingayat scholar M.M. Kalburgi and journalist Gauri Lankesh are the recent victims of right wing activism,” Meenakshi Balai of the Pragna Kanunu Salaha Samithi said, during the agitation.
She added that right wing extremists were targeting all those who upheld and worked for popularising Vachanas composed by reformers Basaveshwara and other Sharanas of the 12th century.
“The Sharanas of the 12th century vehemently fought Vedic traditions and exploitation of common people in the name of religion and God. They composed Vachanas in simple language to educate and mobilise people against Hindutva and casteism. Even today, Vachanas are being used as powerful tools to oppose Hindutva communalism. That is why communalists are targeting all those who do research on the Vachana movement and who work for popularising the Vachanas,” she said.
The agitators later went to the district administrative complex and submitted a memorandum addressed to Chief Minister at the office of Deputy Commissioner.
Their demands included expediting the investigation in the Gauri Lankesh and M.M. Kalburgi murder, making the names of the killers and their organisations public, declaring the killings of Gauri Lankesh, M.M. Kalburgi, Narendra Dabolkar and Govinda Pansare as acts of terror and initiating stringent steps to curb communal forces and protect freedom of expression.
Prominent Lingayat leader Ravindra Shabadi, Dalit leader Arjun Bhadre and others participated in the agitation.
