Not in my name: Social media comes handy in mobilising protestors yet again

Social media once again emerged to be a handy tool in mobilising the protest as most of those who arrived at Jantar Mantar got to know about it after seeing the Facebook or Whatsapp messages.

A Facebook post by Gurgaon-based filmmaker Saba Dewan against the lynching of a Muslim teenager sparked a powerful online campaign, leading to protest marches being organised in 10-odd cities across the country.

Uttara Chaudhary, 21, a student of Ashoka University in Delhi said, “We are five friends here. One of them saw the post of Facebook and informed the others. Gradually, other people got to know.”

Sharmista Sarkar, 44, a worker at a private firm, said, “The situation at present is such that some people from one community are bullying and lynching the people from minority community. We need to take a stand that we are not the part of the same crowd. We need to show that people who are spreading communalism are just a handful of people and majority of India still believes in brotherhood.”

Most protestors present at the venue said that their level of tolerance was tested and were only waiting for someone to give a call so they could join the protest.

Siddharth Kumar, 40, who works as a teacher at a private school, said, “Our Prime Minister tweets on trivial issues, but there was not a word when a youth died in Ballabhgarh or when there was lynching in Rajasthan.”

“People were agitated over minority community being targeted and were only waiting for a place where their voices could be heard. The platform was given when the #NotInMYName campaign began after a Facebook post by Dewan,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Wednesday protest had some people from neighbouring states like Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh too participating. However, most who turned up were from Delhi. Several AAP volunteers also took part in the protest.

AAP leader Atishi Marlena, who was present at the site said, “Many AAP volunteers are present but as a common people supporting the cause.”

A month before, Dalits from different parts of the country gathered at Jantar Mantar to protest against Saharanpur violence. This was also mobilised with the help of social networking sites.

Many protesters had then said that they had gathered at the site without any organised means for mass mobilisation except for social networking sites and WhatsApps groups that publicised the event.