Dear Gauri, It is 10 days since I wrote to you…2 days ago- September 15th was the International Day of Democracy with the theme Democracy and Conflict Prevention focusing on strengthening democratic institutions to promote peace and stability through strong leadership, strengthen civic society and empower women…it goes on. Somehow this day as many other days, I miss you…want to[Read More...]
One of the English phrases says that “Pen is mightier than the sword”. The attempt by sword to put down pen is purely a result of fear that Pen has created. Starting from Dabholkar, Pansare, Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh, the series of attempts to put an end to their lives is a result of this fear. Each of them had[Read More...]
While the progressive forces were gearing up to celebrate the birth anniversary of Paash – a revolutionary Punjabi poet on September 9, the news of the assassination of Gauri Lankesh shook everyone to the core. Paash was a byproduct of the radical communist movement also known as naxalite movement of late 1960s that united the oppressed communities and the[Read More...]
And after your lightning and thunder
A fresh rain will come
Sprouting new buds and petals
Spreading diverse colours of freedom.
That song I will sing
For the sake of all songs to come!
On that dreadful evening of 5th September, if Gauri Lankesh had seen her own corpse lying in a pool of blood outside her house she would have -I am very sure- simply smiled For even in her death she had done what was closest to her heart – expose India’s saffron supremacists for what they really were. A sorry[Read More...]
Ambassador Ajay Marotrao GONDANE High Commission of India Canberra, Australia Your Excellency I mourn and rage with India for the assassination of respected journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh. Progressive and principled, she upheld the journalistic legacy of rigorous advocacy for human equality and rights in the spirit of India’s freedom-fighting journalists Tilak, Gandhi, Vidyarthi, Bhagat Singh who would be desolate that the[Read More...]
When pen Becomes gun Ideas flow like bullets The enemy Picks up gun Unable to withstand the ‘ fire’ of ideas And sprays bullets To eliminate ideas Still, Question remains As it did for ages and ages What are we going to fight over to-day? What is your grudge?’ The fight Never ends ‘ To- day, the deliberate increase[Read More...]
But I am someone you just cannot curb
I am a voice that refuses to die
You may bleed my heart but it refuses to cry
I am the eyes that refuse to blink
”I will do what i can and I will say
What I should. These intolerant voices
Find strength in our silence.
Let them learn to argue using words
instead of threats”
The murders of rationalists in India must make us all think as to how the Indian tradition of dissent and reasoning would survive. The tradition of dissent and rationality is not foreign to India. Historically speaking the Indian philosophical thoughts are classified as either orthodox or heterodox. The heterodox school can be broadly classified as those who used logic, rational[Read More...]
