[Lately, the rationalists have been pretty busy. Some followers of India’s ruling party have attacked Muslims and pushed a hard-line Hindu agenda. But many Indians don’t share this outlook and have tried to fight back, arguing that India is losing its multicultural identity and becoming more of a one-party, Hindu state.]
By Jeffrey Gettleman And Hari
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People
gathered on Wednesday in Bengaluru to pay respects to the journalist Gauri
Lankesh, who
was killed outside her home the night before. Credit Manjunath
Kiran/AgenceFrance-Presse
— Getty Images
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NEW
DELHI — Gauri Lankesh, one
of India’s most outspoken journalists, was walking into her house Tuesday
night.
It was around 8. The night was warm. She was
alone.
As she stepped through her gate, just feet
from her front door, several gunshots rang out.
She was killed instantly in what political
opposition officials say appears to be yet another assassination of an
intellectual who publicly criticized India’s ruling party and the Hindu agenda
it has pursued. In recent years, at least three other anti-establishment
activists been silenced by bullets.
Ms. Lankesh’s death, which monopolized
television news coverage on Wednesday, set off protests across India, a country
increasingly polarized by supporters of the Hindu nationalist ruling party and
its detractors.
Some of Mrs. Lankesh’s friends say they have
no idea who killed her. But among government opponents, the circumstances of
the shooting fueled suspicions that ruling party backers, emboldened by their
leaders to wipe out their enemies, were behind it.
“Anybody who speaks against the RSS/BJP is
attacked & even killed,’’ Rahul Gandhi, an opposition leader, said in a
Twitter message. (R.S.S. is a Hindu organization that is closely connected to
India’s ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata Party.) “They want to impose only
one ideology which is against the nature of India.”
Nitin Gadkari, a cabinet minister, said the
accusation was “baseless” and “false.” The ruling party and its affiliates, he
said, had “no relation to the murder of Gauri Lankesh.”
Ms. Lankesh, 55, would rarely back down from
a fight, but was also known for her humorous touch.
Rana Ayyub, a friend and fellow writer, said
that the last time they spoke, about a month ago, Ms. Lankesh was furiously
flipping through a dictionary, trying to figure out the proper pronunciation of
“nincompoop.’’ (She planned to use the word against her critics.)
“She was fighting a very unpopular battle
with the right wing of India,’’ Ms. Ayyub said, “but she had this ability to
convert everything into satire.”
Many people, though, didn’t find it funny.
Ms. Ayyub said Ms. Lankesh had received death threats every day, far too many
to count, from different sides of the political equation. Those, too, she did
not take seriously, Ms. Ayyub said.
“She didn’t have the faintest idea that
somebody could pop bullets into her,’’ Ms. Ayyub said.
Ms. Lankesh, who lived by herself in
Bengaluru, in southern India, was known as a “rationalist’’ — a term in India
for people who stand against superstition and the use of religion in politics.
Lately, the rationalists have been pretty
busy. Some followers of India’s ruling party have attacked Muslims and pushed a
hard-line Hindu agenda. But many Indians don’t share this outlook and have
tried to fight back, arguing that India is losing its multicultural identity
and becoming more of a one-party, Hindu state.
The three other activists killed in a
somewhat similar manner in the past four years had also opposed the rise of
hard-line Hinduism.
The daughter of a celebrated poet, Ms.
Lankesh was the editor of a self-named weekly magazine. She wore her silver
hair short and favored long shirts and jeans. She specialized in feminist
politics and literature, and lashed out at politicians of all stripes. She was
sometimes criticized for showing some sympathy to Maoist rebels who have
operated in India for years and destabilized large parts of the center of the
country.
Leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party had
been annoyed with Ms. Lankesh for years and sued her for defamation. The first
court to hear the case convicted her and sentenced her to six months in prison
last year, but she was granted bail while the case was on appeal.
S. N. Sinha, president of India’s
28,000-member journalist union and a member of a news oversight council, said
the council had gotten many complaints about Ms. Lankesh. “She used to write
very strongly,’’ Mr. Sinha said. “We warned her she has to be a little careful
in her writing. It wasn’t the content; it was her language.’’
On Monday, the day before she was killed, she
shared a post on her Facebook page that was written by someone else. “The RSS
is the terrorist organization,’’ it read.
But Mr. Sinha was not among Ms. Lankesh’s
critics. A free press is taken very seriously in India, especially now, he
said.
“It’s getting very stressful,’’ Mr. Sinha
said. “The followers of the ruling class don’t accept any questioning. They
just want you to say what they do is good. If you question them, they don’t
accept that.’’
Police officials have released little
information about Ms. Lankesh’s killing. They say she was shot at point-blank
range with a high-caliber pistol as she entered her yard in Bengaluru.
Neighbors found her dead from several gunshots to the head and chest, lying on
the ground between the front gate and her veranda. Some witnesses reported
hearing the sound of a motorcycle or scooter right after the shots.
In an interview on television, her brother
said the authorities had told him that security cameras had captured images of
the killer riding up on a motorcycle and firing the shots. The killer’s face
was obscured by a motorcycle helmet.
On Wednesday, as Ms. Lankesh was given a state
funeral, journalists, activists and students poured into the streets of
Bengaluru, Kolkata, Hyderabad, New Delhi and other cities to express their
outrage.
Some people shook their fists and chanted
slogans. Others marched quietly, with candles, holding up large pictures of Ms.
Lankesh’s face.
