Bengaluru: The formal announcement of the Gauri Memorial Trust was made on Monday by the core committee members. The trust, which also launched its website, will be led by freedom fighter H.S. Doreswamy.
The focus is to launch a paper to take forward Gauri’s ideology, conduct annual State and national-level seminars in her memory; institute an award in her name for journalists and activists working to uphold Gauri’s values and conduct orientations and offer scholarships to young journalists.
Setalvad said the trust has resolved to make sure that the kind of journalism practised by Gauri, who was killed on September 5, survives. “The fear of death pervades the public spaces today. To puncture it, we need to create spaces of courage and resistance. This is what Gauri did,” she said.
Referring to the Bababudangiri incident, where a tombstone was uprooted by a few young Datta devotees at Chikkamagaluru on Sunday, Setalvad said, “The forces of majoritarianism are rearing their head as they always do before elections. It is time we demand the expert committee report submitted to the Supreme Court on this issue be accepted and implemented by the Karnataka government.”
Gauri Lankesh Hathya Virodhi Vedike will hold a public meeting near Gandhi Statue at 11 a.m. on December 5, marking the completion of three months since Gauri’s killing.