Recently the so-called “liberals” and self-declared “concerned citizens” of the country came up with a new campaign called #NotInMyName, which purportedly sought to protest against the supposed rise in lynching the country is witnessing after Narendra Modi won the general elections.
The campaign idea was criticised, including here at OpIndia.com, because most of the people associated with the campaign had pre-decided to focus only on “Muslim” victims of lynching incidents, even though victims are from other communities too.
However, some still claimed that the campaign was about lynchings of all sorts, and did not focus on any religion or ideology. This claim was lynched by the mobs that gathered to protest, and it became clear that the campaign was a partisan political propaganda.
How insensitive and partisan the “protesters” were, was obvious when the following ‘lynch map’ of India was brandished as part of the campaign:
As one can see, not only the protesters refused to include public killings of Hindu activists in states like Kerala, they even refused to include incidents where Muslims were killed because they were not seen as “Muslim enough” by Islamist mobs – such as lynchings of an Army jawan and DSP in Kashmir and a Muslim BJP leader who was hacked to death in Karnataka.
Apart from that, it included incidents in Jharkhand, which were known to have no connection with religion, because an almost equal number of Hindus were also killed by local villagers under the same suspicion of child theft. This lie was first spread by Huffington Post, which had later retracted, but the propagandists at the #NotInMyName decided to further the lie.
This map, almost a symbol of the farce that the campaign was, came under criticism on social media:
The ‘Map’ omits any reference to:
Dalit boy burned alive by Muslims in Pune.
Muslim BJP activist beaten to death by Muslim mob in Bangalore. pic.twitter.com/j0X2knmsGG— কাঞ্চন গুপ্ত (@KanchanGupta) June 28, 2017
Read the thread. Did any of the lynching victims find a mention at #NotInMyName protests? Was it about lynching or political frustration? https://t.co/36MfTF4fbw
— Abhijit Majumder (@abhijitmajumder) June 29, 2017
Apart from whitewashing crimes of Islamist mobs, the campaign was used as a platform to propagate Hinduphobia and fuel anti-Hindu bigotry, as was evident by a few posters at the events:
Make no mistake: #NotinMyName is not a humanitarian plea for peace and order. It’s malicious hatemongering. pic.twitter.com/DwzNxX4LoB
— Be’Havin! (@WrongDoc) June 29, 2017
When you slander an entire community your protest shows up for what it is: hate-driven activism aimed at maligning all Hindus. #NotInMyName pic.twitter.com/jX8YY6VRxj
— কাঞ্চন গুপ্ত (@KanchanGupta) June 28, 2017
There were other instances of how such law and order failures were stereotyped as “Bhraminism” and “Hindu Terror”:
Within 24 hours, #NotInMyName campaign became an anti-Hindu Terrorism, anti-Brahmanism, anti-Modi and blind-to-Kerala-crime campaign. pic.twitter.com/Nx5e7wgoej
— Rahul Raj (@bhak_sala) June 29, 2017
Anti ‘lynching’ protest or anti- Modi protest. You decide. @narendramodi#NotInMyNamepic.twitter.com/8eE3VSU06M
— Vivek Agnihotri (@vivekagnihotri) June 28, 2017
Then there were others, who openly abused Hindus and Hinduism, and called for armed aggression from Muslims i.e. virtually calling for a civil war the way Jinnah had asked for ‘Direct Action’:
Leaders of anti bigotry campaign. pic.twitter.com/YkjGySUr5t
— अंकित जैन (@indiantweeter) June 28, 2017
They are not even masking it anymore. The call for Direct Action has been made. pic.twitter.com/y6NbO2IQeC
— अगड़म बगड़म सेकुलरिज़म (@DesiUvach) June 28, 2017
They did not spare even Gandhiji, perhaps because he had not given up on Hinduism:
#BreakingNow | Shocking twist to protest, Mahatma Gandhi’s statue desecrated by Not In My Name London chapter activists in UK #NotOnPakSoil pic.twitter.com/R2sFYZfNjQ
— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) June 28, 2017
The tragedy is that despite it being a campaign of hate, the organisers, thanks to their connections in media and the elite class, will be able to paint themselves as “concerned citizens”. An example of how their hold on narrative successfully gets support even for their hate campaigns, was visible when young Bollywood actor Varun Dhawan tweeted in support of it.
I completely support the #NotInMyName movement. It was a peaceful protest and stood for the values of what our country stands for.
— Varun Dhawan (@Varun_dvn) June 28, 2017
Essentially, it is “cool” to hate, if you can call yourself “liberal”.
