ON July 18, 1948, home minister Vallabhbhai Patel wrote to Syama Prasad Mookerjee, the Hindu Mahasabha leader who set up the BJP’s ancestor Jan Sangh, on the RSS and the Mahasabha’s role in Gandhi’s murder.

He made no charge but said: “Our reports do confirm that, as a result of the activities of those two bodies, particularly the [RSS], an atmosphere was created in the country in which such a ghastly tragedy became possible.”

It was precisely in such an atmosphere that the brutal killing of Gauri Lankesh took place on Sept 5. She was respected for her fearlessness and commitment to values as editor of the journal Lankesh Patrike founded by her father P. Lankesh. Demolition of Babri Masjid in 1992 made her a strong opponent of the Hindutva brand of politics.

A New York Times’ editorial accurately summed up the root cause of the crime which “has all the hallmarks of a hit job”. It was the vicious atmosphere of religious hate which was fostered with increasing intensity ever since the BJP and the RSS took up the issue of a Ram temple on the site on which stood Babri Masjid.

In this atmosphere, noted dissenters fell to targeted bullets. In 2013, it was the activist Narendra Dabholkar. In 2015, it was M.M. Kalburgi and Govind Pansare; all gunned down. All opposed Hindutva. Kalburgi was a former vice chancellor of Kannada University. A journalist who wrote an exposé of the Dabholkar murder case received death threats. Denounced also was the senior police officer investigating the case.

Legislation alone cannot stem the tide of hate.

The pattern is unmistakable and its roots were noted by NYT: “Prime Minister Narendra Modi has let a climate of mob rule flourish in India, with his right-wing Hindu supporters vilifying ‘secularists’. The venom that reactionary social media trolls direct at journalists, or ‘presstitutes’ as they call them, is especially vicious, but not entirely new. … Ms Lankesh had voiced concern about the climate of menace against journalists who didn’t toe the Hindu-nationalist line. If Mr Modi doesn’t condemn her murder forcefully and denounce the harassment and threats that critics of Hindu militancy face daily, more critics will live in fear of deadly reprisal and Indian democracy will see dark days.”

As with similar crimes in the past, Modi refused to condemn them.

These attacks on journalists are aggravated forms of crimes. According to Death Watch List compiled by the Vienna-based International Press Institute, India is ranked as the ninth ‘deadliest’ country for journalists.

The Press Council of India set up a fact-finding committee which visited 11 states and submitted a detailed Report on Safety of Journalists. It was set up in the wake of the murder of crime reporter Jyotirmoy Dey, in broad daylight in Mumbai. It records that in Kashmir “a senior journalist said that since 2008, the security forces were beating up journalists who went to cover incidents whenever the extremists targeted the security establishments”. And “on a single day, about 25 journalists were beaten up … even though they carried accreditation cards and curfew passes”.

The GOC 15 corps based in Srinagar said he could not allow the media at the scene of operation while it was in progress as it might endanger their lives. The concern, so touching, is not evident when the pressmen are attacked. They are entitled to watch the operations and report on them.

Appended to the report is a list of 80 journalists killed in India since 1990. It makes useful recommendations. Intimidation of or attack on a journalist should be made a cognisable offence triable speedily by a special court. Nov 2 may be proclaimed as the ‘National Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists’.

The crux of the matter is investigation into the offences. The report recommends probes by CBI. This can be improved by providing for judicial surveillance. The high court should take suo motu notice of the crime, set up a special investigation team and monitor its progress till the charge sheet is filed. The report proposes legislation by parliament to enforce its recommendation.

A model to emulate is Clause 4 of the Karnataka Freedom of Press Bill, 1988. It provided deterrent punishment for violent attacks or intimidation “with the intention of preventing any journalist or worker in a newspaper … from performing his duties ….” ‘Worker’ was added because in 1988, the Rajiv Gandhi regime had instigated strikes to prevent publication of a daily by resort to violence.

Legislation alone cannot stem the tide of hate. It can be done only by members of civil society, from all ranks who arouse national concern against the hate injected in society which triggers off roots and instigates murders of Muslims, Dalits and dissenters.

The writer is an author and a lawyer based in Mumbai.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2017