Image Courtesy:thenewsminute.com
As the fourth anniversary of Gauri Lankesh’s assassination approaches, the City of Burnaby has declared September 5 as a day in honour of the slain Indian journalist. Gauri Lankesh was a daring editor who was allegedly shot dead by right wing extremists outside her Bengaluru home on the ill-fated date in 2017. On Friday, August 27, Mayor Mike Hurley made the proclamation that describes Lankesh as a “courageous Indian journalist who stood up for truth and justice” and, “laid down her life… in her fight against repression and for human rights.”
The dedication may be viewed here:
A fearless journalist, Gauri Lankesh consistently wrote against superstition and growing fanaticism under the current Hindutva nationalist BJP government in New Delhi. Her independent publication also highlighted how attacks on religious minorities and political dissidents have spiked ever since the BJP came to power with a brute majority in 2014. Lankesh had also challenged and questioned those in power and raised her voice against state violence through her writings. Her death was rejoiced by right-wing trolls on social media, many of whom openly claim to be supporters of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
This is not the first international honour bestowed on Gauri Lankesh posthumously. On October 8, 2018, Lankesh was honoured at a memorial commemorating reporters killed on duty at the Bayeux-Calvados Awards held in France. The Bayeux-Calvados Awards for war correspondents (Prix Bayeux-Calvados des correspondants de guerre) is an annual prize awarded since 1994, by the city of Bayeux and the General Council of Calvados. Its goal is to pay tribute to journalists who work in dangerous conditions to allow the public access to information about war.
Gauri Lankesh’s name was carved on a pillar along with those of other journalists killed in the line of duty.
This is also not the first time that the City of Burnaby has honoured an Indian human rights defender. Last year, the city had proclaimed a day after the towering human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra, who was killed by the Indian police for documenting the cases of those kidnapped and eliminated in an extra judicial manner in the name of ending Sikh militancy in Punjab. Incidentally, Khalra was abducted on September 6, 1995 from his home in Amritsar and later murdered.
Burnaby City Councillor Sav Dhaliwal and former Burnaby School Trustee Baljinder Kaur Narang have been instrumental behind these proclamations that were requested by Radical Desi and other members of the South Asian community.
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