That September day, when Kerala was celebrating Onam, this piece of news came from Bengaluru. There have been many protests after that day, many speeches and sad words spoken. A month later, Kerala is just as angry about Gauri Lankesh’s murder. And today at the Town Hall in Kochi, there will be a gathering of eminent figures speaking at an event titled ‘#IamGouri: United Against Fascism’, put together by Freethinkers and Kerala Free Thinkers Forum.
“This is the fourth murder... after Pansare and Dabholkar and Kalburgi... And so far, there has been not a single clue about the perpetrators. The killings of writers and rationalists just continue... It is this intolerance against free speech that we are protesting against, through the meet,” says Roshind V.P., coordinator of the event.
Questions may come. What good have these protests done, when the killings do not stop? But what will happen if the murders are greeted with silence? If the few who raise their voice, despite everything, give up. If no one raises a brow anymore to injustices as inhuman as a woman being murdered in front of her house when she came home from work.
They won’t stop. Akkai Padmashali, Narendra Nayak and Shirin Dalvi will come to Kochi to speak. Akkai is a renowned transgender activist and founder of Ondede, an organisation working for sexual minority rights, women’s and children’s rights, etc. Narendra Nayak is the president of the Federation of Indian Rationalist Association and founder of Dakshina Kannada Rationalist Association. Shirin runs an Urdu news portal. There will also be Rahul Sharma, an IPS officer, journalist Shahina, and Dr Mathew Kuzhalnadan, general secretary of Indian Youth Congress.
In the afternoon, are sessions on fascism — M.G. Radhakrishnan on ‘Media Life in Fascist Times’, J. Reghu on ‘India versus Bharat’, Sunny M. Kapikkadu on ‘Neo-Hindutva and Democratic India’, and Dr K.S. Madhavan on ‘Intellect and Democracy’.
‘Freethinkers’ is an online community aimed at promoting rational, progressive and secular concepts. The group has organised several programmes to raise public awareness on relevant social issues, covering topics such as science, politics, feminism and atheism.
