Ideology that killed Mahatma Gandhi behind Gauri Lankesh, M M Kalburgi murders: Siddaramaiah

“Why was Gandhi killed? He strived for communal harmony, which the communal powers could not tolerate. Such powers killed Gauri Lankesh. This is not just her story. If anyone raises their voice against communal forces, threats are issued, threatening letters are written…For communal forces, our fear is their strength. Don’t be afraid of them,” Siddaramaiah said.

Commenting on the threat letters sent to progressive writers in the state recently, the chief minister said he suspected that just one person was writing these letters. “These letters are not signed…I have asked the police to find out those behind it. We will find them at any cost,” he said, adding that there was suspicion that the people behind it enjoyed political patronage.

Siddaramaiah also said that the Lankesh murder case was investigated well. “There are around 500 witnesses for the case. More than 80 witnesses have appeared during trial proceedings,” he said, adding that the hearing of the case was being held one week every month.

At the event, Angela Rangad, a political activist from Meghalaya, said that under the current rule, a new ideological horror was being perpetrated. “Questioning was the edifice of our country, which is being undermined,” she said. “The very idea of India, where small communities like us had a voice, seems very distant now under this regime. The federal imagination is now replaced by notions of double-engine governments. A double-engine government is twice complicating the already complex and tenuous relationship of people in Manipur. It has doubled the violence and doubled the mistrust,” she added.

Manipur, Rangad alleged, was a major experimentation in the region. “A project to have majoritarian hate-filled cartels that will pay for easy exploitation of resources,” she added.