Press critic of Hindu nationalism murdered in India
Killing of journalist Gauri Lankesh described as ‘an assassination on democracy’
Relatives of Gauri Lankesh were in shock after the killing © AP
6 HOURS AGO by: Amy Kazmin in New Delhi A prominent Indian journalist known for her outspoken criticism of rightwing Hindu nationalist politics has been shot dead outside her home in Bangalore, sending shockwaves through India’s media industry. Gauri Lankesh, 55, had worked in New Delhi for leading English language newspapers and was more recently editing her own local-language weekly. She was opening her front door on Tuesday night on her return from work when she was shot in the chest and head by motorbike-riding gunmen. The assailants fled.
Lankesh was a co-founder of the Communal Harmony Forum. She was outspoken and highly critical about the rising tide of threats, intimidation and violence against those opposed to Hindu nationalism, or those who challenged orthodox Hindu interpretations of faith and history.
Her murder comes as the state of Karnataka — of which Bangalore is the capital — is gearing up for assembly elections next year. The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party of Narendra Modi, the prime minister, is hoping to retake control of the state from the incumbent Congress government.
Siddaramaiah, Karnataka’s chief minister, took to Twitter to denounce the killing, calling it “an assassination on democracy”. Speaking in New Delhi in March, Lankesh brought up the assassination in 2015 of MM Kalburgi, a former university professor whose interpretations of ancient religious texts had upset Hindu traditionalists.
She recalled with dismay how, just after the killing, a member of the rightwing Bajrang Dal had tweeted “mock Hinduism will die a dog’s death”.
In 2015, Lankesh told a journalist that she believed some rightwing groups operating in Karnataka had a hit-list, and that she was likely to be on it. Last year, she was convicted of defaming a Karnataka-based lawmaker from Mr Modi’s BJP in a 2008 article about alleged corruption. She was appealing against the conviction.
Siddharth Bhatia, co-founder and editor of the digital media business The Wire, tweeted: “The message and not to independent journalists but to all dissenters is clear. We are watching you and one day we will get you.”
The killing of journalists is not unknown in India, where 40 reporters have been murdered since 1992, according to the Committee for the Projection of Journalists.
However, most were working in small towns, often for local publications, and took on vested interests in their communities, often over large-scale corruption. Lankesh, however, was based in Bangalore, the heart of India’s IT industry, and had long associations with English-language publications.
Her outspoken criticism of rightwing Hindu nationalism, and its adherents, was largely on ideological grounds. “Uncompromising in her secularism, #gaurilankesh appears to have been targeted for her views, an ominous turn to intolerance,” tweeted Samar Halarnkar, the Bangalore-based editor of IndiaSpend, a data journalism website.
Despite its constitutional right to free speech, India’s media face many intense pressures. Reporters without Borders, in its most recent index on press freedom released in April,
ranked India 136 out of 180 countries, down three from 2016.
The report cited pressure on the media from “Hindu nationalists trying to purge all manifestations of ‘anti-national thought’ from the national debate”. It said journalists were engaging in “self-censorship,” and were increasing the targets of “online smear campaigns by the most radical nationalists who vilify them and even threaten physical reprisals”.
https://www.ft.com/content/d9b7785e-926c-11e7-a9e6-11d2f0ebb7f0
.......... though I do like a fan, I would prefer them to be intelligent as well.
.
