National-level convention over Gauri Lankesh murder on Tuesday

Bengaluru: The Gauri Lankesh Hatya Virodhi Horata Vedike, a platform formed by a group of writers and thinkers in the aftermath of her killing, plans to organize a national-level convention in Bengaluru on Tuesday to protest the killing of journalist Gauri Lankesh and to condemn and resist such attacks on free expression.

“The message that the killers of Gauri wanted to send us, progressive thinkers and democrats, was that we should shut up or face consequences. But we need to tell them in clear voice that we are not afraid and we will exercise our constitutional right of free expression,” said senior Kannada writer K. Marulasiddappa, while announcing the day-long convention.

The meet will be on Central College Grounds. Several national-level activists are expected to participate, said K. Neela, convener of the vedike.The writers and activists will take a protest rally from Sangolli Rayanna Railway Station to the Central College Grounds.

Marulasiddappa said though he was fine with the SIT probe, he personally felt that a Supreme Court-monitored probe into the murders of Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare, M.M. Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh would be more effective.Noted personalities Teesta Setalvad, P. Sainath, Sagarika Ghose, Anand Patwardhan, Rakesh Sharma, Prashanth Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav, among others, are likely to attend the meet.