When thousands in India and in several cities across the world went out to protest on Wednesday, as part of the “Not in My Name” campaign against lynchings and other communal and caste-based attacks, senior journalist Ravish Kumar was part of the crowd at Jantar Mantar in Delhi. He has been a vocal critic of the growing intolerance and violence in India, and he made, once again, some important points (above) at the protest meet.

“When one man is killed, and 11 men are a part of that crowd, all of them become murderers. And these men will then go on to kill others,” he said. “The people who witnessed the incident (Junaid’s killing) and remained silent – I think they will always be plagued by sickness. Now they’ll go through a psychological disorder – they’ll always be thinking, ‘I know what happened, but I’m unable to speak’. How will they carry this burden? Whoever was on that train, whoever quietly fled the scene, will be mute their entire lives. They’ll become ill, and they’ll never be able to speak for themselves.”

Kumar also questioned the actual state of cows in the country, in whose name the majority of the lynchings have taken place. He pointed out that the incidents of mob violence have certainly not improved the condition of cows, given that they are still eating plastic and roaming the streets in the middle of traffic.

In another video, Kumar said that the situation in the country was turning so vile that it had the potential to turn our children into murderers with long-term brainwashing.

As a collective, he said, we have to do better for the sake of humanity. “You can love and support the government if you like, but you must stand up against these lynchings,” said Kumar. “The people who remain quiet at farmer suicides are the same people who are quiet at Junaid’s murder.”

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A few days ago, he made another case for the climate of intolerance in the country, in a speech, “The National Project for instilling fear has reached completion.” Kumar said (video above), “You are not being readied to kill Muslims. One day you will be used to kill just about anybody.”