| “I have not seen people playing such cheap and dirty politics over a dead body. Mind you, poor Gauri Lankesh was not even cremated when these vultures were putting their beaks in the flesh of the corpse,” says Sudhir Bisht |
Normally when I receive an invitation for attending any event at the Press Club of India at Raisina Road, New Delhi, I try to attend the event. We meet routinely to celebrate a festival or to mourn the passing away of a member. Sometimes protest meets are organized and when I received a SMS to attend a meeting to protest the dastardly killing of Gauri Lankesh, I immediately took the metro from Dwarka and reached Press club in quickest possible time.
The muder had left me angry, sad, agitated and in a general state of melancholy.
Wearing a black shirt that symbolises protest, I reached the club on time yesterday, the 07th September 2017.
Immediately upon reaching the club I found the Red brigade there in full force.
There was Sitaram Yechuri of CPI(M) with D Raja and Mohammed Salim from the CPI. Also present were Swami Agnivesh, Sobha Oza of Congress, Yogendra Yadav of his own party and Ashutosh of Aam Aadmi party. And there were these television celebrities like Ravish Kumar, Manoranjan Bharti.
Journalists like HK Dua and Gautam Lahiri were sitting on the dais looking very, very wistful with a very agitated looking Siddhart Vardarajan of wire.in.
The protest meet started off with anti-right wing slogans from the large number of men and women who all appeared to be have made up their minds that the killing of Gauri Lankesh was an act of revenge by the people who followed an ideology that was different from theirs.
All these people seemed to propagandize that left wing was the haven for men and women who were apostles of peace, comity and brotherhood. They were determined to let the world know that the other side of the spectrum, the right wing, comprises people who have allegiance to fascism, despotism and destruction.
Sitaram Yechuri started off by saying that Gauri Lankesh was murdered by an ideology and this was reinforced by D Raja and Mohammad Salim. The three eminent men whose organizations never shed a tear at the most gruesome political murders in the states where they have influence, were attacking the ideology, the “soch” , the “vichardhara” as they kept on blabbering.
There were many journalists who were present and appeared to be uncomfortable at the presence of politicians at the event but they chose to remain quiet.
Who wants to turn a tragic event into a political slugfest?
I was however aghast when Kanhaiya Kumar was asked to make his speech by the organizers. Kanhaiya started by saying that Gauri was like his mother and even if she was sympathiser of the Maoists and Naxalistes, nobody had any authority to kill her. He gave clear signals to say that he suspected right wing parties of killing her.
Barkha Dutt of the The Print.in too was asked to speak but she largely spoke about keeping the issue above any political line.
The speech by Siddharth Vardarajan of wire.in was very passionate. If one read between the lines he passed a judgement that the right wing ideology was behind the brutal murder of Gauri Lankesh. He went on and on with his bluster against the ruling dispensation. Yogendra Yadav too spoke about the dastardly killing of Gauri Lankesh but he kept the politics largely out of his free speech.
One lady sitting on the front row who didn’t identify herself took the mike briefly and said, “Who are the parties who will make the most out of this heinous murder? It is BJP and RSS!” The men and women in the gathering clapped and those on the dais appeared to be in a dilemma of sorts. To clap or not to clap must have been on their minds. Perhaps a nod would do. They seemed to be asking one another. But they let it pass.
The biggest tirade however came from Ravish Kumar of NDTV. A superstar that he is to his feverish fans, he thought it fit to engage with none but the Prime Minister!
He took out the name of a certain Dadechi, a Twitterati who is followed by the PM too. Ravish turned the protest meet into a campaign against BJP. He alluded to the tweet of BJP’s Amit Malviya, without naming Amit, and cautioned all to be on the lookout for more attacks.
Ravish was able to transform the sombre event into an event of self-glorification and his own moment of pride. It was repulsive, distasteful, hateful and intolerant speech by the poster boy of left wing journalism.
“I ask Prime Minister that the first thing that he should do upon his return from abroad is to unfollow this man who links Gauri to an animal. I ask the prime Minister to follow me on Twitter instead and I promise him that I will give him full respect.” Ravish Kumar appeared to be enjoying the event and seemed to be in frenzy.
The former anchor of CNN IBN Ashutosh, the AAP’s forgotten spokesperson, went a step further. He disparaged the Prime Minister by reminding Ravish about the “kuttey ka pilla” remark made by the PM in 2014.
The poster boy of NDTV and the forgotten silver-head of AAP exploited the murder of Gauri Lankesh without any compunctions. While the former was trying to enhance his followership on Twitter by taking pot-shots at the PM, the latter was attempting to give out an atrociously ridiculing byte to stay in news.
It is remarkable to note that the Communist party leaders, Yechuri, Saleem and Raja, left after making their speeches. They had come just to make appearances. This after an, “We are with you always” type assurance!
The crown for making most ludicrous speech however would go to the Congress party’s Shobha Oza who said the forces that killed Gauri are the same forces that mock her for being Shobha ‘Thomas’ Oza! She went on to say that right wingers tell people that she speaks against them not because she believe they are wrong, but because she is a “Thomas”.
I have not seen people playing such cheap and dirty politics over a dead body. Mind you, poor Gauri Lankesh was not even cremated when these vultures were putting their beaks in the flesh of the corpse.
His book, 'The First Lady of Roli petroleum' has received critical acclaim in India and Africa among NRI community. Sudhir believes in integral humanism and world peace and is a follower of Dr. Subramanian Swamy's dictum of selfless national service.
Sudhir is presently working on writing two books. 'The Berkeley Brahmin' a fiction and 'Moral & Ethical challenges facing Young Indians' a compilation of case studies.
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- Left wing politics over the dead body of Gauri Lankesh - September 8, 2017
[…] Sudhir Bisht, noted columnist and author, who attended the meeting held at New Delhi’s Press Club had written an exclusive article for PGurus in which he has expressed his anguish and disgust over the way “vultures were feasting over a dead body”. “I have never seen people playing such cheap and dirty politics over a dead body. Mind you, poor Gauri Lankesh was not even cremated when these vultures were putting their beaks in the flesh of the corpse,” wrote Bisht. Left wing politics over the dead body of Gauri Lankesh – PGurus. […]
Please refer to the concluding words of your candid article (all CAPITALS are mine, only to draw attention): “I have not seen people playing such cheap and dirty politics over a dead body. Mind you, poor Gauri Lankesh was not even CREMATED when these vultures were putting their beaks in the flesh of the corpse.”
Really? I would like to know. Especially after what I happened to read: “Gauri’s younger brother, Indrajith, split the family paper and started his own publication. Those close to her say she was antagonised to no end by her brother’s actions, including the sale of a family farm where their father was BURIED.”*
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* Johnson TA , Amrita Dutta: “The Gauri Lankesh they knew.” The Indian Express. Updated: September 10, 2017 12:58 am. Online link: http://indianexpress.com/article/india/gauri-lankesh-journalist-murder-the-gauri-lankesh-they-knew-4836198/
No wonder most of these people are Christians…
D.raja , who doesn’t even want to give out his full name – David raja, just like this shoba Thomas are all bent on creating bad names for bjp…
Guess people are made to realise these people’s real motives…