With her work and activism, Gauri forged her own identity
BENGALURU: Till the night of her murder, Gauri Lankesh, feisty journalist and editor of weekly Kannada tabloid Gauri Lankesh Patrike, remained involved in public interest journalism.
Her work in Karnataka began when she took over as editor of Lankesh Patrike in January 2000, after her father P Lankesh’s sudden death. The black and white weekly tabloid, named after its founding editor in 1980, was synonymous in Karnataka with truth and integrity.
The team of reporters were reputed to be uncompromising in theirvaluesoveranyenticements. Apart from salaries, P Lankesh alsopaidwhathecalledan‘alcohol allowance’ (extra money) to his reporters, and provisioned for them to drink at work so that they wouldn’t get swayed by promises of alcohol from a politician.At its peak from 1982 to 1995, Lankesh Patriketouched4.5lakhincirculation and was seen as having the capacity to make or break social movements and governments. In 1984, the tabloid stuck its neck out predicting a big victory for incumbent chief minister Ramakrishna Hegde’s Janata Party – but soon after, Lankesh Patrike became a scathingcriticofthesameleaderit supported.LankeshPatrikebroke the story of phone-tapping allegations against Hegde and, as a result, the government suffered a huge loss of face. Lankesh Patrike also broke the story of the same government’s alleged irregularities in awarding arrack-bottling contracts.Thematterwastakento the Karnataka high court, which ordered an inquiry and found Hegde guilty, and this resulted in his resignation as well as strictures passed against the government. P Lankesh hailed from a smallvillagecalledKonagavalliin Shimoga district and when he started the weekly with his savings, nobody had quite imagined how long it would last.
P Lankesh was in his 40s when he quit his job and started his publication, modelling it after Harijan, the weekly tabloid paper founded by Mahatma Gandhi. However, with his insightful writing and sharp political analysis, Lankesh Patrike soon became a household name.