All right-thinking people would most unreservedly condemn the murder of the Kannada rationalist M M Kalburgi last Sunday in Dharwad, Karnataka. It is strange, to say the least, that despite police protection, the assailants could walk into his house and shoot him at point-blank. The Karnataka Government cannot escape its responsibility for failing to protect the septuagenarian Kannada scholar. The killing of Kalburgi in the backdrop of the earlier murder of the rationalist Narendra Dabholkar two years ago in Pune reflects a disturbing trend of impatience and intolerance of unpopular views. Questioning superstitions and religious practices is particularly fraught, something both Kalburgi and Dabholkar had done without let or hindrance.
This had attracted the wrath of some wrong-headed people in various fringe groups claiming association with a number of political parties. In fact, in the case of Kalburgi, someone claiming to be a member of the Bajrang Dal had messaged on social media that next in line for such a gory end was another noted Kannada writer. Admittedly, it is hard to police the internet; all sorts of people misuse it to air their crazy thoughts. Misusing the name of political parties and affiliated groups by the demented individuals cannot be ruled out.
Indeed, invariably it is the unhinged who exploit the freedom afforded by social media to abuse their perceived ideological foes, without realising that freedom of speech is the inalienable right of all Indians and that freedom to offend is an integral part of that fundamental freedom. Even if people like Kalburgi and Dabholkar were at odds with the religious beliefs and practices of a vast majority of their fellow-citizens, the latter did not have the right to take the law into their hands. Violence has no place in a democratic republic. The killers of Kalburgi must be apprehended and given the maximum punishment under the law.
