Pune: The murder of senior journalist Gauri Lankesh in Bengaluru on Tuesday night has exposed some vicious-minded people on social media who celebrated her death and posted the worst possible comments.
Their comments were criticised across the online, print and electronic platform and were also criticised by BJP minister Ravi Shankar Prasad. Sakal Times has tracked and conversed with a few such troll whose objectionable comments were actively doing rounds on social media.
The most objectionable was – ‘Ek **** ki maut kya mari saare **** ek sur mein bilbila rahe hain’. The comment was made by one Nikhil Dadhich.
Dadhich justifies act
Dadhich is based in Surat and runs a company.He is a manufacturer and supplier of home furnishing products and bed sheets.
When Sakal Times contacted and questioned him about his tweet, he initially denied tweeting any such comment but later agreed and said, “It was just a tweet and didn’t mean anything. I just wrote what I feel like and it shouldn’t bother anyone.”
On questioning further he disconnected the phone.
Pune troller
Another objectionable tweet was made by one Ashish Mishra, a resident of Pune who wrote, “Jaisi Karni Waisi Bharni.” Mishra works as a consultant with Silver Touch Technologies based in Delhi. He has done MCA in computer science from Indira Institute of Management, Pune and a research course from IIT, Mumbai.
He claims to be a BJP supporter and was an active volunteer of Swachh Bharat Mission in Pune.When contacted, Mishra said, “Gauri Lankesh was in contact with anti-national and anti-social people. She was associated with people against whom our military is fighting and she died because she had contacts with them.” When asked whether he has any proof of Lankesh’s associations, he said, “I have heard that she has links with them. I just tweeted ‘Jaisi karni waisi bharni’ which means because of this association with bad people she was killed. I have not tweeted that she was a Hindu hater and I am happy that she died.”
‘She’s a kid!’
Another twitter account by the name Oxomiya Jiyori, says, “God had different plan for group of Bharat tere tukde honge”. The tweet was made on Lankesh’s picture with JNU students Umar Khalid and Kanhaiya Kumar. The handle is owned by one Riya Saikia who hails from Assam. On early Wednesday morning she tweeted, “Congress government now starts giving state funeral to convicted criminals... #GauriLankesh...after few days terrorist too will get state funeral.” When contacted by Sakal Times, she refused to comment. However, one of her friends Sankhaneel Baruah said, “Forget her tweets she is a kid. She does tweet herself but please ignore her.”
Journalists too!
Jagruti Shukla, a former journalist of Zee TV who is currently employed with a news channel by the name JK24X7News in Delhi tweeted on the death of Lankesh, “So, Commy Gauri Lankesh has been murdered mercilessly. Your deeds always come back to haunt you, they say. Amen.” Shukla hails from Datia in Madhya Pradesh and anchors the show News Room Live on JK24X7 News. She started her career as an anchor with BTV in Indore and then later worked with ETV, MP and SITI News Zee group in Bhopal. She has also worked with Kanpur-based K News before joining Zee Hindustan in Noida. Shukla in the past was criticised for her tweets on Dalits, Sikhs and Muslims. A petition was started on Change.org to remove Shukla from Zee TV (Zee Media- remove Jagruti Shukla for Bigotry). When Sakal Times contacted Shukla and questioned her tweets regarding the murder of Lankesh, she said, “Gauri Lankesh was a leftist and used to follow Karl Marx, leftist ideology demands for bloody revolution and her death is just a product of following such bloody ideology. I am not sad or celebrating her death. I have a neutral view on it.”
“The government of Karnataka has given her state honour. She believed in the ideology of Naxalites and giving her state honour is not correct. Such honours are for soldiers and not for people believing in leftist ideology,” added Shukla.
Openly biased
When asked further that despite being a journalist why she has a biased view regarding an ideology, she said, “She had an ideology and she was considered as a journalist. I also have an ideology and when I act according to it people give me names and tell me that I don’t deserve to be a journalist, why this double standard is there.” Vishveshwar Bhatt, another journalist based in Bengaluru tweeted – Naxal sympathiser and senior journalist Gauri Lankesh shot dead at her residence in Bengaluru Rajrajeshwari Nagar. Bhatt is editor-in-chief of Kannada daily Vishwani and in past was an officer on special duty to BJP MP Anant Kumar. When asked about his tweet, he said, “She was identified as a Naxalite for last 15 years. She was appointed by Karnataka government in Naxal Rehabilitation Committee to bring Naxalites into the mainstream. As we write renowned artist or player, I just wrote Naxal sympathiser and there is nothing wrong in being Naxal sympathiser or the word.”