Historian Ramachandra Guha, known for being outspoken in his political views, was served a legal notice by the BJP Yuva Morcha on Monday (September 11) for commenting that the Sangh Parivar might be involved in the murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh. The notice seeks an unconditional apology from Guha.

The notice complained that Guha’s intentional “utterances” have brought disrepute to the RSS and BJP, and that the utterance had been made with an “ulterior motive” and that the “direct allegations, insinuations and innuendos” impute criminal conduct.

The notice quotes Guha’s alleged comment in an interview, where had supposedly said: “It is very likely that her murderers came from the same Sangh Parivar from which the murderers of Dabholkar, Pansare and Kalburgi came.” The notice also claimed that similar comments had also been made by the historian in an article.

Guha’s remarks were allegedly in the context of the murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh in Bengaluru on September 5. The notice, issued by Haranahalli Law Partners on behalf of State BJP Yuva Morcha secretary Karunakar Khasale, said: “You (Guha) have alleged that the perpetrators of the said crimes belong to our Client’s Organisation.”

It is not known what Guha intends to do about this, but he tweeted: “In India today, independent writers and journalists are harassed, persecuted, and even killed. But we shall not be silenced.” In another tweet, he said: “Atal Bihari Vajpayee said the answer to a book or article can only be another book or article. But we no longer live in Vajpayee’s India.”

—India Legal Bureau