Activists and journalists from across the country will stage sit-in demonstrations at statues of Mahatma Gandhi on October 2, to protest against the murder of dissenters and rationalists, including MM Kalburgi, Govind Pansare and Narendra Dabholkar, and the recent killing of journalist Gauri Lankesh.
The Gauri Hathya Virodhi Vedike (Forum Against the Assassination of Gauri Lankesh) organised the protests. They had held a national rally, #IAmGauri, in Bengaluru on September 12.
The demonstration has been planned on the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. “To condemn such killings, our slogan is ‘Those who killed Gandhi, killed Gauri too,’” the forum said in a statement.
The group has planned another protest in Delhi on October 5 – a month since unidentified men shot Lankesh dead outside her house in Bengaluru. It has appealed to the public to join their demonstration.
“We earnestly appeal to all citizens, who have shown the courage to say ‘No’ to perpetrators of terror, to come in clusters and build a broad, democratic coalition to rescue freedom and democracy from the onslaught of right-wing fascism,” Bhalachandra Shadangi, a member of the forum, said on Facebook.
He said the Centre was “unashamedly upholding and supporting forces” that are destroying communal harmony in the society. “The programme in Delhi, thus, is very necessary and important to exert pressure on the central government, to take our voice to those in the higher echelons of power, who are willfully acting deaf and dumb in this vital matter that has moved the entire country,” Shadangi added.
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