[Although one of the suspects in Ms. Lankesh’s murder was arrested earlier this year and does not have an apparent link to the Bharatiya Janata Party, the current government has been accused of tolerating its supporters’ use of violence to intimidate critics and stoke sectarian tension.]
By Maria Abi-Habib
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A
vigil in New Delhi for the journalist Gauri Lankesh after she was killed
in
September.CreditTsering Topgyal/Associated Press
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The gun that was used last year to kill a
prominent journalist critical of the Indian government was the same weapon
employed in the murder of a scholar with similar ideological leanings, the
local news media said Friday, citing a forensic report.
The apparent link suggests an organized — if
local — campaign to silence critics of the Hindutva movement, the far-right
Hindu nationalists who overwhelmingly support the governing Bharatiya Janata
Party. The journalist, Gauri Lankesh, was killed last September, just over two
years after the death of the scholar, M.M. Kalburgi.
Ms. Lankesh and Mr. Kalburgi, who were both
accused by right-wing groups of insulting Hinduism, were killed at their homes
in the southern state of Karnataka.
Although one of the suspects in Ms. Lankesh’s
murder was arrested earlier this year and does not have an apparent link to the
Bharatiya Janata Party, the current government has been accused of tolerating
its supporters’ use of violence to intimidate critics and stoke sectarian
tension.
The Indian Express newspaper reported the
contents of the forensic report, detailing that the same 7.65-millimeter gun
had been used in both murders.
Officials investigating the case were not
immediately reachable.
In March, the police arrested Naveen Kumar,
the founder of the far-right group Hindu Yuva Sena, on suspicion of his
involvement in Ms. Lankesh’s murder. Mr. Kumar later confessed to supplying
bullets to a right-wing Hindu nationalist who said he intended to use them to
kill Ms. Lankesh because she was “anti-Hindu.”
The forensic report was part of the charge
sheet against Mr. Kumar presented to the court by investigators late last
month.
Both Ms. Lankesh and Mr. Kalburgi were known
as “rationalists,” a term used in India to describe those who oppose the use of
religion in politics. During her career, Ms. Lankesh, 55, had been sued several
times, accused of defamation by leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The day before she was killed, Ms. Lankesh
shared a Facebook post written by someone else that accused the Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh, the ideological parent of the Bharatiya Janata Party, of
being a “terrorist organization.”
Mr. Kalburgi, 76, was a vice chancellor of
Kannada University and had frequent run-ins with Hindu nationalist groups. In
2014, a year before his death, several right-wing groups staged protests and
threw bottles and stones at his residence after he criticized idol worship in
Hinduism.
When the Bharatiya Janata Party rose to power
in 2014 with the election of Narendra Modi as prime minister, such right-wing
groups connected to his party vowed to transform India into a “Hindu nation.”
Since the election, intolerance has worsened throughout the country, sometimes
leading to violence against religious minorities.
Last month, New Delhi’s archbishop warned
against rising intolerance and urged Indian Christians to pray ahead of the
2019 elections, though he did not criticize or endorse any political party.
Nevertheless, leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party and other right-wing Hindu
nationalist groups sharply criticized the archbishop.
In April, the government proposed a media law
that threatened to cancel the accreditation of journalists who peddled “fake
news,” but backed down 24 hours later after a massive outcry. Critics said the
law was too broad and vague, allowing the government to go after detractors.
@ The New York Times