Yet another free voice silenced in Gauri's murder

Two years after the killing of rationalist and writer Prof M M Kalburgi, the state received a shock on Tuesday as Gauri Lankesh, a journalist who was a vocal against Hindutva brigades, was shot dead at her house.

The journalist, along with many progressive thinkers, had recently expressed disappointment over the state government’s inability to trace the killers Kalburgi.

Within two months after she stepped into the shoes of P Lankesh, her father, Gauri had transformed from a regular reporter into an editor who was not afraid of continuing the legacy of her father who left behind ‘Lankesh Patrike’, a hard-hitting tabloid. “I am not afraid of physical attacks at all. I used to come home at 3 am alone many nights,” she had told Rediff.com

Born in Shivamogga, Gauri grew up in Bengaluru. After finishing her Bachelor of Arts at Central College, she obtained a masters in journalism in Delhi and started working as a journalist in 1984. She worked for Times of India, Sunday and ETV. Her job took her to several places in India as well as France and the United States. She was working as ETV correspondent in Delhi when her father died in January 2000.

Though she came to the spotlight after publishing a story on Dharwad MP Pralhad Joshi and BJP leader Umesh Dushi that led to a long-drawn defamation case and culminated in her conviction, it was her progressive stance seen at platforms such as Komu Sauharda Vedike or rehabilitation of Naxalites that brought her the attention and criticism.

“As a citizen of India, I oppose the communal and totalitarian politics of the BJP. I oppose the twisted interpretations of Hinduism and I stand against its caste system, inequality and gender discrimination,” she recently said in an interview to the newspaper.

As a civil society member of the committee set up to oversee implementation of Surrender/Assimilation and Rehabilitation Policy for Left Wing Extremists, she worked steadfastly to bring to the Maoists to mainstream.

Shivasundar, a close associate of Gauri for years, said: “She was finalising the proofreading for this week’s edition which was supposed to go for print on Wednesday. She stood in support of Yogesh Master, who was assaulted for expressing his views.”

Theatre person K Y Narayana Swamy said the series of murders, where one after another rationalists and free thinkers have been killed, shows that we are going far away from our roots of tolerance. Those who are using violence in the name of religion are setting a dangerous trend,  he said