The moment the news of Gauri Lankesh’s murder came out, I knew it would be another Rohith Vemula types controversy. I did not know who Lankesh was, before her tragic death.
Visiting her Facebook page I found her using choicest phrases to label the boogeyman of the “sanghis”. One should not talk ill of the dead but at the same time death doesn’t absolve a person of his/her activities.
Her murder is a criminal case. Police will do their job (if allowed by Congress government) and hopefully the killers would be found. That’s how the cases are supposed to be solved. Now, law and order is a state subject, so the Congress government is responsible to take the investigation to its conclusion. But considering the fact that the Kalaburgi murder case hasn’t moved an inch, I suspect this murder case will also meet the same fate.
Now, her hatred for the ‘sanghis’ knew no bound but the ‘sanghis’ never responded to her in general. Plus apparently, she was about to unearth massive scams of the Congress in Karnataka. Also, based on her writing, there have been accusations of her being sympathetic to the Naxal cause. True or not, reports have claimed that she had been in regular contact with the Naxals and was also trying to bring them to surrender. The report also claimed that the Naxals as a result bore an irreconcilable grudge against her.
You see the paradox here, she was a self-proclaimed number one enemy of ‘sanghis’ but people she crossed paths with or befriended weren’t ‘sanghis’ but they were the dark powers. People she bothered are known to kill their opponents.
So, any sane person with even a gram of grey matter will say, well, the circumstances of murder can be considered as murky. There are number of suspects and investigation should begin with going through her phone log and talking to her closest associates at the ‘patrika’ she used to publish. The investigation should also review her notebooks (if any) and identify any individuals she has interacted recently or was planning to interact in near future. And no, I am not an investigator. In fact, what I am saying here is what I have learned from TV detective sitcoms! So, you know, nothing fancy to begin the investigation.
Coming to a different point. Anand Ranganathan pointed out that more than 23 journalist have been murdered in last few years in India. But the moment he uttered the facts, he was savagely attacked by so called liberals and so called liberal journalists. The liberal world of India is so confusing because when you point out the fact that’s contrary to their argument, it becomes post-truth and then when you try to shed light on the counter incidences, they become violent in their assertions.
By the way, the key point Anand noted here is, 21 of those 23 killed tragically belonged to Hindi or local newspaper? They wrote their articles in Hindi or local languages. So do they not deserve an outrage? One journalist in particular was burnt alive in UP when the state wasn’t saffron yet, it was in fact green under Akhilesh. Before dying, that reporter gave statement against local Samajwadi party politician but any guesses on what happened to that investigation?
Coming back to the topic of Gauri Lankesh’s murder. What if solving the murder isn’t essentially part of the plan. What if the motive behind this is only to corner the opponents of Naxals and left-wing commies? Perhaps, what if the motive is to defame India on world level, ever since we just gave bloody nose to China? Too much conspiracy? Otherwise, why would US Ambassador immediately tweet about this incidence and NYT write an article before even FIR is lodged?
Doesn’t all this drama sound too scripted? Who is gaining out of this? Why were Kanhaiya kumar and Sheila Rashid, the so-called student leaders invited to the press club? Who invited them? I don’t have an answer but the pattern is unmistakable. The moment any of the past murders happened, ‘Sanghis’ were summarily ‘convicted’ as murderers. The FoE was immediately labelled as near-extinction specie in India. Modi was somehow blamed for following some stupid twitter handles.
The whole nation, that is roughly 125 crore people was shamed for. Though the liberals are not very clear about what we should be ashamed of. You immediately see the likes of Shabana Azmi and other Bollywood celebrities condemn the incident. The boogeyman of fascism is dusted out of bags and overnight, the whole nation is fascist.
Obviously, ‘Sanghis’ were expected to line up like lemmings and jump of the cliff out of shame. Though, no particular ‘sanghi’ was ever identified. There are literally tens of crores of ‘sanghis’ in India and around the world. It one of the largest voluntary social organisation in the whole world! But, liberalism in India means, being very liberal with facts, logic, accusations, insinuations and most importantly, being very liberal with hatred.
But I feel something more sinister is at play here. Did you notice that the usual political suspects are completely absent from the stage. Kejriwal is silent, Rahul Gandhi issued statements immediately but then vanished. Lalu, marginalised post the Bihar debacle, is left tweeting and that’s about it. Mamata is also surprisingly very quiet on this issue. These politicians have not let go a single opportunity to corner the Modi government even on flimsy grounds.
But this time, after getting sucker punched in elections after elections, they ay have realised that these manufactured outrages don’t help them at all.
But then, who continues to manufacture these outrages? Who is behind this well-oiled hoopla machinery? Who gains from this? And most importantly, who funds such a sleek PR campaign? These questions are equally, if not more, important than solving Lankesh murder case. Because even if we find real killers of Lankesh, such incidences and outrage will continue to happen via other such ghastly events. And THIS gravy train needs to be stopped.
