‘Stand up for Gauri, Stand up for freedom, Stand up for harmony’ | Sit-ins at Gandhi statues across states of India on 2nd Oct & joint national rally on 5 October 2017 in Delhi

Appeal and note on gauri for sharing in mail and whatsapp


Dear Friend,
When Protest was held in Bangalore on the 12th September, there were-- at different estimates-- between 15000 to 30000 persons.

Can Delhi not match the scale at its national proportion ?

Let all of us stand together.

For all further details, please contact LALITHA (copied in this mail)

You will be happy to know that writers from 70 countries have passed a unanimous resolution at the PEN International Congress meeting in Ukraine on the 21st September strongly condemning the attack on media and thinkers.

You will also be happy to know that hundreds of students in Maharashtra will carry out a protest from the 1st to the 5th October. They are meeting in Nashik on the 24-25th Septmber to decide on their Collective Action

In solidarity

Ganesh Devy


-----------------------------------------

Dear friends/comrades

Do kindly pass on this appeal

· To prominent people in your state requesting them to serve as
signatories for the national call and also try to be present on 5th rally
in Delhi for only that can mount the pressure. Pl let us know about this
aspect through call or mail by 24th, a day before the press meet is fixed
to the maximum extent possible and keep the efforts on until 4th Oct.

· To all concerned people to participate actively in the rally ready
with their slogans, placards, songs etc.

The time, venue where we meet and the actual programme will be chalked out
on 25th September, 3 days from now and intimated to you soon after.


With warm regards

Lalitha



Forum against the killing of Gauri Lankesh

An appeal

Dear Concerned and Conscious Citizens,

The assassination of journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh has evidently rung a
strong alarm. Though the chain of resolve to condemn and resist the
dastardly act exhibited across the nation is encouraging, much more needs
to be done to counter the terror acts and save the precious dissident
democratic spaces from the onslaught of fascist forces.

The assassination of Gauri Lankesh, two years after a similar horror was
perpetrated on scholar M.M.Kalaburgi in Karnataka, we believe, is not an
isolated act. Murder of rationalists in the very same fashion in
Maharashtra had given the warning signals much before. And these killings
are inseparable from the chain of killings of Daliths and Muslims in the
name of ‘cow protection’, ‘religion’ etc. It is the dangerous continuation
of the spread of right wing ideology which has started in 1990s.

Being a founder member of Karnataka Komu Souharda Vedike [The Communal
Harmony Forum, Karnataka], Gauri Lankesh was actively involved in the
resistance against reactionary forces along with other progressive sections
of Karnataka who had responded pro-actively and consistently to counter the
growth of such trend in the society. Many are the earnest, serious and
brave attempts being made across India by very many organizations, groups
and even individuals to expose and oppose the dreadful forces who are a
threat to a unified and just society. Yet the above assassinations and
other developments clearly demonstrate that whatever has been done is just
not sufficient to counter their terror. The major concern is the limited
spread of the organized resistance among wider and diverse Civil Society
Institutions in Karnataka and entire India in fact.

It has often been pointed out that, in spite of land slide electoral
mandate garnered by right wing forces, nearly two third voters showed their
opposition to rise of the authoritarian right wing. Yet the practical
efforts to identify the discrete oppositional bases and to mobilize such
civil society dissidence to consolidate a formidable coalition of left,
liberal and democratic forces have been slow and desperate. But after the
killing of Gauri Lankesh a stronger reaction has come from different
quarters of the society which include Artists (including ‘main stream’
cinema), Journalists, ex-civil service officers, legal fraternity including
former judges, Academicians, Religious heads (especially the Viraktha
Basava tradition Swamijis of Karnataka), LGBT community etc and more
serious resolve is shown by diverse streams across the nation, as never
before. Youth and students formed the major chunk of the different
mobilisations against this killing. These facts are clearly underlined by
any number of ongoing protests, spontaneous outpour of common people into
the streets and a whole shower of creative and angry resistance in social
media. This amply demonstrates that, the ‘Optimism of Will’ to resist
divisive forces is alive and uncompromisingly rising the voice of dissent.
The Symbolic Black we wore for mourning has transformed in to ‘The Black of
resistance’.

Hitherto history indicates that, wherever it may be, a severe blow to any
fascism and dictatorship could be dealt only through the widest possible
united front of all who firmly stood to oppose it. The ascendance of
rightist elements not only in India but world over forewarns us of the
grave risks to all democracy and harmony. As Dickensian saying goes “It is
the time of despair, it is the time of hope”. So, NOW is the time to
respond to our inner call. NOW is the time to cease and weave a network of
fraternity to halt right wing terrorism from sowing and spearheading
desperation, death and destruction.

We earnestly appeal to all citizens who have shown the courage to say NO to
perpetuators of terror, to come in clusters and build a broad, democratic
coalition to rescue Freedom and Democracy from onslaught of Right Wing
Fascism. We appeal to every individual and collective, all those who think
and feel for the future of humanity as a whole, to come forward and support
the voice of Unity for a harmonious and Vibrant Society.

As the first step in this process, we request one and all to join hands in
the All India decentralized but coordinated Dharna in front of Gandhi
statues/memorials or such other public place on Oct 2nd to condemn Gauri’s
killing. Secondly, we request that people be mobilised in every state for
the centralized rally in Delhi on 5th Oct, when it would be exactly one
month from the date of killing. Already existing initiatives to hold
protest meetings within the state on the said date may be held accordingly
thus strengthening the protest voice. Elsewhere and also in addition to
intrastate protests it will be good to organise a section of the people for
the central rally as well, to the maximum extent possible.

The immediate necessity to pursue this joint effort is to:

Demand that the police investigation primarily focuses on the most probable
killers and the real political actors behind them as is the normal
procedure. The most probable killers here are obviously only those who were
Gauri’s main adversaries, the most retrogressive forces which had
threatened to kill Gauri and which have justified and celebrated her
killing. And the state government in Karnataka expedites action in this
direction by all means.

To insist above all that it is the utmost responsibility of the offices
that are supposed to safeguard the constitutional values to discharge their
duty impartially. But unfortunately the present dispensation in the centre
is unashamedly upholding and supporting the forces which are destroying
communal harmony and democratic values that are entrenched in our society.
Hence it is all the more necessary that ‘we the people of India’ apply
moral and political pressure on the prevailing regime, such that an
unbiased enquiry is conducted not only to arrest the criminals behind the
acts but also the extra constitutional forces behind them.

The programme in Delhi thus is very necessary and important to exert
pressure on the central government, to reach 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. And this calls for the
direct participation of all conscientious well-known citizens of our land
in the forefront of the rally, to lend a stronger voice to that of the
assembled people.

We once again appeal to each of you and all of you to join us on

OCTOBER 2nd in respective state and on OCTOBER 5th in Delhi and thus
‘Stand up for Gauri, Stand up for freedom, Stand up for harmony’

The common slogan shall be: ‘Those who killed Gandhi killed Gauri’