Gauri Lankesh laid to rest with full state honours, hundreds pay tributes
Mangalore Today News Network
Bengaluru, Sep 6, 2017: Thousands of people bade tearful farewell to renowned Kannada journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh as she was laid to rest with full state honours here on Wednesday. A police honour guard gave a gun-salute to the slain journalist. Her mortal remains were buried at a cemetery in Chamarajpet in central Bengaluru. Gauri Lankesh hailed from the Lingayat community that does not cremate its dead.
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy and a host of other leaders were present at the burial ground to pay their last respects to her. People gathered to witness the funeral chanted “Gauri Lankesh Amar Rahe” (Long live Gauri Lankesh). Her brother Indrajit Lankesh had earlier told reporters that the family would not be following any religious customs at the funeral.
Lankesh, 55, was a fierce advocate of secularism and often spoke against Hindu extremists. On Tuesday evening, unidentified assailants shot her dead as she reached her home near Bengaluru. The motive of the murder is not known yet, and the state government ordered a special team to investigate the case.
Protests against her murder began shortly after her death, picking up pace early on Wednesday when people started gathering outside the Town Hall.
Slogans were raised against right-wing groups and the current state government, which has been under criticism for slacking on the investigation into the murder of another secular activist, MM Kalburgi. Kalburgi was shot dead in a similar manner by gunman at the doorstep of his home in August 2015.
“She was killed because of her ideas, of this there is no doubt,” said writer Chandrashekhar Patil, who writes as Champa.
“I was a close associate of her father, the late P Lankesh, and we were always involved in movements demanding social justice. It was this tradition that Gauri followed, and it is ultimately this that led to her murder,” he said.
K Neela, a close associate of Lankesh, questioned the state government and its inability to stop such murders. “When we asked Siddaramaiah to ensure justice in the murder of Kalburgi, he only gave us assurances. But two years after the murder, the police is no closer to solving the case,” she said. “Maybe if that murder had been cracked we might not have seen this day,” Neela added.
Neela also took aim at journalists for not being more vocal in their protests against the murder. “Mediapersons are calling us to go speak in their studios. I want to ask them, can’t you at least come out on to the streets now. Don’t forget that Gauri Lankesh was a journalist.”
About 12.30 pm, Lankesh’s body was brought from the Victoria Hospital after the autopsy to nearby Ravindra Kalakshetra where it was kept for people to offer final respects.
A bevy of state government ministers were present at the site in addition to Lankesh’s family.
Speaking at the venue chief minister Siddaramaiah said he knew Lankesh well. “Just last week, she had met me to ask for advertisements for a Diwali special issue of her weekly Gauri Lankesh Patrike,” he said.
“Gauri was very aware of the legacy of her father [who ran the tabloid Lankesh Patrike] and she left her career in Delhi to take over the paper here, because she was certain that her father’s legacy had to be carried on,” said Chandan Gowda, a teacher at Azim Premji University, who knew Lankesh closely.
Gowda said Lankesh was not always as political as she became later in life. “She was idealist and never compromised on her ideals,” Gowda said.