Jantar Mantar played host to another NotInMyName protest on Thursday which saw packed attendance. The first NotInMyName event was held after the murder of Junaid Khan on a local train in Faridabad, this one was to commemorate the cold-blooded assassination of senior journalist Gauri Lankesh in Bengaluru. The protest saw similarities in the deaths of Gauri Lankesh, MM Kalburgi, Govind Pansare and Narendra Dabholkar.

Over 100 protesters displayed placards and posters with messages such as “Your Bullets Do Not Scare Us” and “Silence Is “No Longer An Option” as a display of their angst and despair at the murder of Lankesh.

Prof. Apoorvanand, Raees actor Zeeshan Ayyub, CPI-ML leader Kavita Krishnan, JNU scholar Umar Khalid, and senior journalist Manoj Mitta accorded their displeasure through speeches and reprimanded those who trolled Lankesh even after she was killed.

Ayyub recited a famous poem by Sahir Ludhiyanvi, Agar hain khilaaf hone do. Speaking to Newslaundry, he enunciated his disappointment at the way some people are vilifying Lankesh’s death. “Agar kisi ke marne ke baad koi aisi baat kar raha hai to wo insaan to bilkul nahin hai (If someone says something so crass after a person is dead, they are not human),” said Ayyub.

Critic Prof. Apoorvanand expressed his disquiet in a very articulate manner, sharing his stance on the threat to liberals posed by the right-wing. “Ye jo silsila chal pada hai, wo inki (Gauri) maut ke saath nahin rukega (This won’t stop with Gauri’s murder),” he said. The professor also spoke at length about how he perceives the framing of SIT to investigate Lankesh’s murder.

“You all are my children and I’ve adopted all of you.’’ Umar Khalid said that’s what Lankesh told him. “She was like a mother for me, Kanhaiya, Shehla, and Jignesh,” said a visibly-moved Khalid. Her death is an irreparable loss for society and us,” he added. He slammed corporate media for functioning as the state’s propaganda machinery.

Speaking on the subject of the Prime Minister’s silence on Lankesh’s death, Manoj Mitta, an independent journalist and author, appreciated the tweet of Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad who condemned the disparaging of Lankesh’s persona after her demise on Twitter. “I hope Prime Minister follows his example, otherwise his silence will serve as a very negative signal against constitutional values, pluralism and inclusive governance”.

Uttara, a student, questioned the psyche of curbing the liberty of one’s expression with bullets and bloodshed. “If you’re going to respond to letters with the bullets, that’s a deep pathological problem,” she said.