A year after activist and journalist Gauri Lankesh was shot dead outside her Rajarajeshwari Nagar home in the city, Kavitha Lankesh, her film-maker sister, is going through a mix of emotions. On the one hand, there is relief because of the breakthrough in the investigation into the murder; on the other, there is news of a slew of arrests of activists across the country.
“There is a clip of Gauri saying, ‘I don’t mind being called a Naxalite. Soon, everybody will be called one,’ doing the rounds on social media. This must have been three or four years ago, but it is becoming more and more rampant now. A fascist government is arresting activists without any proper allegation. These are dangerous times we live in,” she told The Hindu on Tuesday.
In the same thread comes up the question of whether Gauri should have opted for security cover. “I used to ask her to stay with us, but she always said she needed her independence. Providing security is not the solution. Look at what happened to the editor (Shujaat Bukhari) with security in Jammu and Kashmir. What we should do is put people who are spreading venom behind bars. Then, intellectuals and rationalists can walk free,” Ms. Kavitha Lankesh said.
“About 30% of my life is now mine; the rest are Gauri’s and my daughter’s. Though my priorities and profession are different, even as a film-maker it is my duty to go to such events. In fact, it is the duty of every human being to be constitutional and secular,” she said.
The events of September 5, 2017 left the whole family in an emotional whirlwind. “There is an emptiness. She would come every weekend to our house, relax a bit and spend time with my daughter. When I go to office, again there is emptiness — she was on the first floor, I was on the second. Seeing the locked door is horrifying. I haven’t been able to go near her house after that incident. My mother’s health has also deteriorated,” she said.
Moving on has meant a relaunch of the Gauri Lankesh Patrike on Wednesday, to be run by the Gauri Media Trust. A biopic helmed by Ms. Kavitha Lankesh is also in the pipeline.
“I will continue supporting her ideology. At some point, hopefully, my tears will stop and I will be able to talk about her with much more conviction and not just emotion,” she said.
