Same Gun Was Used to Kill Two Critics of Hindu Nationalists in India
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/0...;pgtype=sectionfront
A vigil in New Delhi for the journalist Gauri Lankesh after she was killed in September. CreditTsering Topgyal/Associated Press
By Maria Abi-Habib
June 8, 2018
The gun that was used last year to kill a prominent journalist critical of the Indian government was the same weapon employed in the murder of a scholar with similar ideological leanings, the local news media said Friday, citing a forensic report.
The apparent link suggests an organized — if local — campaign to silence critics of the Hindutva movement, the far-right Hindu nationalists who overwhelmingly support the governing Bharatiya Janata Party. The journalist, Gauri Lankesh, was killed last September, just over two years after the death of the scholar, M.M. Kalburgi.
Ms. Lankesh and Mr. Kalburgi, who were both accused by right-wing groups of insulting Hinduism, were killed at their homes in the southern state of Karnataka.
Although one of the suspects in Ms. Lankesh’s murder was arrested earlier this year and does not have an apparent link to the Bharatiya Janata Party, the current government has been accused of tolerating its supporters’ use of violence to intimidate critics and stoke sectarian tension.
The Indian Express newspaper reported the contents of the forensic report, detailing that the same 7.65-millimeter gun had been used in both murders.
Officials investigating the case were not immediately reachable.
In March, the police arrested Naveen Kumar, the founder of the far-right group Hindu Yuva Sena, on suspicion of his involvement in Ms. Lankesh’s murder. Mr. Kumar later confessed to supplying bullets to a right-wing Hindu nationalist who said he intended to use them to kill Ms. Lankesh because she was “anti-Hindu.”
Mourning M.M. Kalburgi, a scholar and critic of Hindu nationalists, during his funeral in Dharwad in 2015.
CreditAgence France-Presse — Getty Images
The forensic report was part of the charge sheet against Mr. Kumar presented to the court by investigators late last month.
Both Ms. Lankesh and Mr. Kalburgi were known as “rationalists,” a term used in India to describe those who oppose the use of religion in politics. During her career, Ms. Lankesh, 55, had been sued several times, accused of defamation by leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The day before she was killed, Ms. Lankesh shared a Facebook post written by someone else that accused the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the ideological parent of the Bharatiya Janata Party, of being a “terrorist organization.”
Mr. Kalburgi, 76, was a vice chancellor of Kannada University and had frequent run-ins with Hindu nationalist groups. In 2014, a year before his death, several right-wing groups staged protests and threw bottles and stones at his residence after he criticized idol worship in Hinduism.
When the Bharatiya Janata Party rose to power in 2014 with the election of Narendra Modi as prime minister, such right-wing groups connected to his party vowed to transform India into a “Hindu nation.” Since the election, intolerance has worsened throughout the country, sometimes leading to violence against religious minorities.
Last month, New Delhi’s archbishop warned against rising intolerance and urged Indian Christians to pray ahead of the 2019 elections, though he did not criticize or endorse any political party. Nevertheless, leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party and other right-wing Hindu nationalist groups sharply criticized the archbishop.
In April, the government proposed a media law that threatened to cancel the accreditation of journalists who peddled “fake news,” but backed down 24 hours later after a massive outcry. Critics said the law was too broad and vague, allowing the government to go after detractors.
Hari Kumar contributed reporting from New Delhi.
