“Hum dekhenge, 

Laazim hai ke hum bhi dekhenge,

Hum dekhenge,

Woh din ke jis kaa waada hai,

Hum dekhenge.”

The atmosphere and rhetoric at Jantar Mantar today had a tone similar to the famous nazm by revolutionary Pakistani poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz recited by Iqbal Bano. Today’s protest may have carried the spirit of the song, but began with a minute’s silence observed for Junaid Khan, the 16-year-old boy who was lynched on a Delhi-Mathura train by a mob of 25-30 people four days before Ramzan.

#NotInMyName, a social media campaign started by documentary filmmaker Saba Dewan on June 24 was a call for citizens to condemn mob lynchings and what is seen as government apathy to it. The campaign gained momentum overnight as protests took place in several parts of the country and in Boston, London, and Toronto. Delhi saw a crowd of nearly 2,000 people including journalists such as Vinod Dua, Prannoy Roy, Nidhi Razdan, Siddharth Varadarajan and Naresh Fernandes besides others such as Ravish Kumar, Marya Shakil and Ankita Mukherjee who came with OB vans and a crew to cover the protest.

Other than journalists, the site was also teeming with activists, politicians, students and the general janta wearing black bands and holding placards that read #NotInMyName, “Shed Hate not Blood”, “No Place for Islamophobia”. Several recitations took place including a performance by singer Rabbi Shergill.

Speaking to Newslaundry, Mohammed Rashid Ansari, a protester, said that he saw the news about the protests at Delhi in the morning and immediately boarded a train from Aligarh to stand in solidarity. “I am here to express solidarity with Junaid’s family, he was from our community,” he said.

Several other people also identified themselves as Muslim and said they had come as the current climate in the country “scared” them. Mohammed Dilawar Khan, an IT professional told Newslaundry that he had never taken part in a protest before but the prevailing scenario brought him at Jantar Mantar. “Jo mahaul ab hai wo pehle kabhi nahi tha,” the person next him told us. 

Even before the protests began, the campaign had received flak for being too Hindutva centric and was touted as an attempt at “Savarna redemption”. Many of the people present admitted that might was some truth to these charges, but it was overwhelmingly one of solidarity and outrage.

However, Siddeshwar, a documentary filmmaker who voted for the BJP and continues to be a “Modi supporter” said that the party needed to control the “mad guys”— a phrase he used to describe the fringe elements involved in the lynchings.

Supreme Court lawyer Vrinda Grover, asserted that the Khan’s lynching was indeed a “targeted hate crime” and that there were already laws in place to hold the perpetrators accountable for the crime. 

But not everyone present was in agreement with the manner in which the protest was being organised and propagated. Vikramaditya, an independent researcher said that “it wasn’t sufficient to say ‘not in my name’” suggesting that there is no “good Hindu or bad Hindu”.