Goa cannot walk away from the day light murder of scholar, Communist leader and rationalist MM Kalburgi at the hands of suspected Hindu extremists at Dharwad. Dharwad in North Karnataka, is in the heart of right wing extremism in Karnataka with its flames lapping on the borders of Goa. With the liberal space shrinking in these regions including Goa, ruled by the BJP, Kalburgi’s death is yet another strong reason for liberal secular forces in Goa to unite. The call for good governance only by those who can govern in an inclusive manner based on secularism and rationalism needs to be louder in Goa after Kalburgi “Sir’s” death
The fact that there have been a spate of attacks against those who have spoken out and placed views contrary to right-wing extremism is documented and will be done so again now. The point is that Goa, simply by the virtue of not being victim to this in a brutal manner as those felled in Karnataka, cannot rest easy to let this pass as a “cross border issue”. Border check posts cannot stop ideas. But they cannot stop the killing of ideas either.
Kalburgi’s murder echoes the murder of the campaigner against superstition Narendra Dabholkar in 2013, shot dead by unidentified motorcycle-borne assailants while out on a morning walk in Pune. This was followed by the killing of another communist leader and rationalist Govind Pansare, also in Maharashtra.
The backdrop and the related political developments that have coincided with the rise of right wing extremism, is the rise of the BJP in Northern Karnataka. Groups like the Bajrang Dal and the Ram Sene, announced their presence by a spate of attacks on pubs and their virulent views on culture and the appropriate dress code for women. Sri Ram Sene Chief Pramod Muthalik has been attempting a grand entry into Goa to spew the same venom but was kept in bay, in the early part of Manohar Parrikar’s term as Chief Minister, as a pay back to large sections of non-Hindus who voted the BJP to power in Goa. But in the run upto 2017, in Goa, such niceties may be done away with.
This was no ordinary murder. It looks like a grand program of idea elimination. Is there a guarantee that this will be boxed in within state borders? The Bajrang Dal chief of a town in Dakshin Kannada issued a statement which bordered on celebratory, on the murder of MM Kalburgi. Threats were issued to Mysore-based rationalist thinker K S Bhagwan. Therefore the attempt to silence is a big project.
This project may well play out differently in Goa. It could involve silencing the opposition through a series of carefully selected corruption cases (though Herald supports any action against corruption whatever be the motive and attacks the protection of the powerful corrupt), threatening and arm twisting the media (which Herald will never succumb to) and actively working on the polarising project because it is only the consolidation of Hindu votes which will enable the BJP to win in 2017.
It is very important, as we pay tribute to MM Kalburgi, that the silencing of ideas and ideologies, which are based on humanity and not on religion, is never allowed in Goa, whatever the consequences. For a society which wants results from the government (failing which it should be changed), it must unite across all lines to ensure a society where dissent and freedom of thought are a part of the democratic process and not an enemy of the state. The idea of Kalburgi was shot, at Dharwad. Goa, its neighbour needs to avenge not his physical killing, but protect the ideas that Kalburgi stood for, if the idea of Goa has to be protected.
