“I thought of Gauri Lankesh when I was in jail,” activist Teesta Setalvad said on Monday, September 5, the fifth anniversary of journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh’s death. In remembrance of the fiery journalist, the Gauri Memorial Trust — of which Teesta Setalvad is the chairperson — organised an event in Bengaluru, where other social activists, thinkers and writers shared their memories of Gauri. Teesta addressed the crowd through a video message and spoke about her experience while at the Sabarmati Jail in Gujarat. Teesta, who was charged with forgery and fabrication of records in the 2002 Gujarat riots cases, was granted interim bail by the Supreme Court on September 3.
Calling for a campaign to reform the conditions of women in prison, Teesta said in her video message, “I thought of Gauri Lankesh when I was in jail. Women in the prisons are being exploited. Seventeen women who have completed 14 years in prison were waiting anxiously for their remission mercy petitions to be accepted on August 15; the rapists of Bilkis Bano were released and not them. This shows how lopsided the justice in our country is. We need to seriously take up a campaign for prison reforms.”
The event also saw Booker Prize winning author and social activist Arundhati Roy as a participant. She raised issues regarding totalitarianism and the rise in hate crimes in the country. “India has deteriorated so much, that from a country where a minister resigned over a railway accident, people are now benefiting from massacres.” Pointing to how MLAs constantly switch between political parties, she alluded to a ‘Minimum Support Price’ that elected representatives are bought for, stored in ‘Adani godowns’ and auctioned. “Gauri was someone who everytime I wrote something would call me with excitement asking if she could translate my work,” Arundhati reminisced.
Deepu, a member of Gauri Memorial Trust, brought up the increased surveillance on the government’s critics, saying it has become the norm and no one seems to question it. “The citizens of this country who have different opinions need protection against the Sangh Parivar that is ruling the country, to actually speak out. This is the condition of democracy we are living in, in which we lost our Gauri,” he said.
The event also saw scholar GN Devy, actor and politician Prakash Raj, and journalist D Umapathy in attendance. Gauri’s family, including her sister Kavitha Lankesh, and other members of the trust also were present.
The trial in Gauri Lankesh’s murder case is ongoing in a court in Bengaluru. TNM has combed through the chargesheet, which is 10,000 pages long and in Kannada, and has the statements of the 17 men accused of her murder. Read the first story in our three-part series about why Gauri was killed: