In a strongly worded Open Letter commemorating September 5, 2017, the night seven years ago when bullets from the guns of two men believed to have been brainwashed and trained by the Sanathan Sanstha (SS) shot dead Gauri Lankesh in cold blood, ALIFA and the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAMP) has urged that the crime be recast as a hate crime against humanity; the letter also condemns the release on bail of 8 accused in the trial
Text of the Open Letter:
“Open Letter from ALIFA to dear Gauri Lankesh, marking 7 years of her cowardly killing:
Long Live the Eternal Feminist, Anti-Fascist Fire and Flower Gauri!
Gauri, dear sister, dear comrade!
‘It has been seven years. We still remember the day, the night! September 5, 2017 – in fact the very moments – when the ‘news’ hit us. Gauri Lankesh shot in cold blood. Details poured in. Number of bullets. At your residence. By two men. We reeled with shock under immeasurable grief, loss and helplessness. Abandoning so many unfinished conversations, you left a void in all our hearts, the shape and size of a star!
‘Soon the city, the state, people from across the country joined in this mourning of the many, many Gauris we knew, admired, debated with, and loved. Loved dearly, fiercely. Not just the strong feminist, the fearless anti-fascist journalist, the inspirational mentor, the bold publisher and the fearless activist. But also, the vibrant, witty, unconventional, strong yet vulnerable woman you were.
‘We write today to not remember that one dreadful moment of your death, but celebrate the vital life force you were and continue to be – inspiring all who knew and those who did not, to continue resisting those lifeless forces that took you away from us. We write also to condemn the release of eight of the accused just a day before the seventh anniversary of your murder – indicative of a State machinery that is becoming increasingly communalised and callous at worst, and inept at best while legitimising impunity and injustice at the highest levels.
‘We were relieved when the law-and-order system actually did its job, investigating and arresting 17 people including the two assassins, Parashuram Waghmore, 26, a former member of the Sri Rama Sena in Bijapur, and Ganesh Miskin, 27, a right-wing activist from Hubbali. The trial too began in July 2022. All were linked to extremist Hindutva groups who created a syndicate to carry out killings and attacks on its critics – primarily in Karnataka and Maharashtra, between 2013 and 2018. This included the equally remarkable and inspiring Dabholkar, Pansare and Kalburgi who lived and died defending the faith of freedom, justice and rationality.
‘The members of this organisation targeted persons who they identified to be inimical to their belief and ideology. The members strictly followed the guidelines and principles mentioned in Kshatra Dharma Sadhana, a book published by Sanatan Sanstha,” the SIT said after it filed a chargesheet against the accused in the case on 23rd November, 2018.
‘Many of your friends, family and comrades went and sat in the Courts on the days of the trial to look at the accused in their faces and show them that your spirit of defiance still lived – fearless and free. They sat there to show up how shallow the convictions of your killers were. And how frivolous their desperate attempts to prove the ‘kshatra’ or ‘masculinity’ of their fight by killing a spirited woman like you. With the last of the veils dropped, exposing the murderous monstrosity that drove your killers, it has only been made clear how low they can stoop. Their project of Hindutva fascism, the framing of you, Gauri Lankesh, as a ‘Durjan’, turned around in their faces, in the cheapest slapstick way. You would agree – the joke is on them!
‘We could see you too sitting in the trial, lighting up your cigarette and laughing out at their cowardice! For don’t forget we loved you also for your happy irreverence. We delighted in learning from you that political humour was always more nuanced than a simple struggle between repression and resistance. Like Serge said, “Repression can only live off fear and only intimidates the weak. It exasperates the best and tempers the resolution of the strongest!”
‘And you were anything but weak. You remained strong in life and after life. For what has lived on despite their attempts to kill you is your indomitable courage. Despite the threats, the imminent possibility of death, the continual attempts to silence you and everything you represented, you knew where you stood and always had the courage to stand your ground. You continued to create spaces for asking ‘uncomfortable, irreverent’ questions and holding that space courageously for all of us.
‘You used to say, “I will do what I can and I will say what I should. These intolerant voices find strength in our silence.” You did just that. There was no silencing you then and even now.
‘Like Anais Nin said, “One’s highest mission in life can only be to try and be at peace with one’s self.” Can’t be truer than of you! The complete sincerity with which for decades you fought the forces of gendered, caste and communal discrimination, much like Basavanna the founder of the faith you were born into. Like you said when fighting even those forces within the community who were failing him, “Basavanna not only protested these (Vedic texts, caste and gender discrimination), he offered an alternative that is an anti-thesis of sanatana dharma.” The conviction with which you spoke truth to power and damn the consequences!
‘The camaraderie that your forged – across different movements, be it that of the Adivasis, Aambedkarities or Transgender, Queer Assertions; within the progressive circles that you felt was getting fragmented; with younger activists, students hounded by the right-wing regime and who you joyously embraced as your children. Your unflinching solidarity with persecuted Muslims and minorities of all hues. The pain and passion with which you stood for Rohith Vemula, another star! The courage with which you made the transition from English to Kannada media, taking on the powerful legacy of a legend like your father and becoming a legend yourself! We loved the Lankesh Patrike.
‘We loved the Gauri Lankesh Patrike and we loved the relentless and thousand ways in which you spoke out for a just, fair and compassionate society.
‘Salute Gauri to the organic, authentic and genuine intellectual and activist that you were.
‘In commemorating your death and in condemning the release on bail of the eight accused, a move meant to embolden criminals of the worst kind, we reiterate the need to recast ‘the murder of Gauri Lankesh’ as a hate crime against humanity. We reiterate our resolve to defend Democracy, Pluralism, Egalitarianism. We reiterate our resolve to defend Free Speech and Reason. We reiterate the need for questioning the state’s complicity and the judiciary’s failure in upholding our basic civil liberties and democratic rights as citizens. But more than anything else, we reiterate our collective determination to not be silenced.
‘Like Angela Davis said, “One has to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world and one has to do it all the time.” You did and we shall too, for it was always a collective battle and always will be. And in this battle, we wish for ourselves not only your courage and political commitment, but also your lightness of being and your radical humanity that radiated through all those relationships big and small that you forged in and beyond your time, ensuring that you will never go away.
‘As the inimitable Basavanna said, “things standing shall fall, but the moving ever shall stay”. You move through the millions fighting for justice. You live on. In our hearts, In our hopes. Long Live Gauri! The Fire and Flower!’
In profound solidarity, salutes and deep love,
All India Feminist Alliance (ALIFA – NAPM)
Related:
Gauri Lankesh assassination: 6 years down, no closure for family and friends, justice elusive
Gauri, a film on journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh wins international award: Montreal 2023
Gauri Lankesh Assassination: Accused denied bail by Aurangabad HC