Statement from the Indian Writers Forum:
The Indian Writers’ Forum unequivocally condemns the dastardly murder of Professor M. M. Kalburgi, eminent Kannada writer, scholar, academic and free thinker. We cannot but link this gruesome event to the earlier murders of the two rationalist activists, Govind Pansare and Narendra Dabholkar in Maharashtra as the three daylight murders have a common motive and follow a common pattern.
We see this as a cowardly attempt to silence all sane, secular, dissenting voices in our country which boasts of its open and argumentative tradition. We demand that those responsible for the murders will immediately be brought to book. We call on all intellectuals and writers who uphold the freedom of thought and expression to raise their voices against this rule of hatred and unreason. We call on all citizens who believe in communal amity and democratic values to declare their solidarity with the cause Professor Kalburgi and others have died for.
