Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh publicity chief Manmohan Vaidya said his organisation had no role whatsoever in the brutal murder of veteran journalist Gauri Lankesh in Bengaluru on September 5. There was no logic at all in accusing the RSS of the murder, said Vaidya to THE WEEK.
“There are some forces which have been opposing us for years. They were once powerful and empowered. But that is no longer the case. The support for the RSS is growing. People trust and welcome the RSS. All these campaigns against us are the handiwork of these marginalised people who are liars. They are desperate to spoil our image. But people are with us. We have nothing to worry.”
Such malicious campaigns against the RSS will not work, said Vaidya. The murder of the journalist was earlier condemned by leaders of the BJP and the RSS. “The state government should rapidly track down the perpetrators and ensure justice,” read a statement from the RSS unit in Karnataka.
The Karnataka government has set up a Special Investigation Team to probe the killing. Lankesh, who owned and edited Lankesh Patrike, a popular Kannada weekly, was known for her radical writing on social issues. She was shot dead by unidentified assailants outside her residence at Raja Rajeshwari Nagar in Bengaluru around 8 pm on September 5. Lankesh was one among the strongest critics of Hindutva politics in Karnataka and had referred to JNU students’ union activist Kanhaiya Kumar as her adopted son.
Her brother, Indrajit Lankesh, told a television channel that she had received hate messages, recently, from the naxalites after having succeeded in bringing a few ultras to the mainstream.
BJP state president B.S. Yeddyurappa said the murder of Lankesh is condemnable and asked the Karnataka government to conduct a thorough inquiry into it.
The Union home ministry has asked the Karnataka government for a report on the journalist’s murder.
