Refusing To Die

Gauri Lankesh’s views will not die because they are intrinsic to freedom and humaneness. And her killers are confused because they do not know how they can kill any better.

- Sashi Kumar

BY THEY KILLED HER. AND THEN THEY KILLED her again. And yet again. And yet, she does not die.

If you were one of them, you would actually consider her lucky the first time round. Because, of the four bullets fired from that country made pistol, from that close range, only three found their mark. If you were one of them and you had had your way, the fourth too should have. Now it is almost as if one bullet did not do its job. It is as if one bullet spared her by not ripping into her flesh and bones like the rest. So as you go about killing her again, you need to be unsparing, in the filth you throw at her, in the calumny you unleash on her, in the spleen you vent on her.

If you were one of them, her refusal to die in spite of this multiple killing would leave you in a fit of jealousy and rage. You would start seeing red and call her a Commie, that ultimate cuss word in your vocabulary for those you viscerally hate because they are intellectually way above and beyond your grasp. When it looks like that intended slight only enhances her reputation, you would turn apoplectic and lapse into incoherent obscenities against her. You would blindly hit out at anyone and everyone who so much as cast a sympathetic, kindly glance at where she stood, and what she stood for, before she was felled. You would berate the media for making her the subject of conversation and concern for even these few days. You would pettily grudge her the state honours with which she was laid to rest. You would vengefully crow about how she had it coming and how she deserved every bit of it. You would drop dark hints about more helmeted riders on motorcycles armed with country made pistols being out there on the streets to deal with others who, like her, foolishly took their freedom of speech seriously.

THEY ASK, WHY ALL THIS FUSS