The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) now in session in New Delhi has issued the following statement:
The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) strongly condemns the cold-blooded murder of senior journalist Gauri Lankesh, outside her home in Bengaluru yesterday.
This killing, fits into a by now familiar pattern of eliminating voices that dare to speak out against the current climate of hate and intolerance by the RSS/BJP. The killings of Govind Pansare, Dabholkar, Kalburgi and now Gauri Lankesh – are all interconnected. All of them were vociferous in their opposition to superstition, obscurantism and the perpetuation of the communal agenda by the rightwing Hindutva forces.
The Polit Bureau demands of the Karnataka government to immediately identify and arrest the culprits.
It calls upon the Left and democratic forces to lodge a strong protest against this heinous murder and against the growing intolerance and hatred in the country.