Umar Khalid made headlines well before the arrest of JNU students union leader Kanhaiya Kumar on charges of sedition. He and fellow student leader Anirban Bhattacharya subsequently went into hiding, surrendered, were arrested and released on bail. They spoke to ScoopWhoop about the entire experience and more. Edited excerpts: SW: What made a small event in JNU campus turn into a full blown controversy? Anirban: Nothing is coming as a surprise for us. It's definitely a pattern. We have struggled for democratic space, we have struggled for putting forth opinions democratically. And this has been happening within the JNU and across the country. It's not new. Over here, it was institutional orchestrated witch-hunt. The other pattern is that from everywhere starting from IIT Madras to FTII or HCU or JNU, people have stood up and they have spoken against it. If there's a pattern of the witch-hunt, there's a pattern of solidarity also. Both these patterns are important and the coming days will decide what prevails, democracy or Fascism.

Umar: Nothing happens spontaneously or in vacuum. History is witness to that fact. What's unfolding in last two years, is also a very orchestrated, a very well thought out plans to implement the RSS agenda, everywhere in the society.

SW: What are your thoughts on the media trial against you, particularly Umar? How has that affected you?

Anirban: We remain the same but many things have changed around us. Of course, a large part of that is to be blamed on sections of corporate media.

Rather than courts, news studios are conducting trials. And in that trial someone has been already branded and charged. That doesn't change even if the court gives a particular verdict. Who's going to take responsibility for that?

Umar: The media trial that we witnessed in this period was obnoxious.

We have lost anonymity because of this media trial. Everyone knows us. Within a few days, there were posters put up in a different localities including a locality outside JNU with my photograph, calling for my death. Today also, we are scared since the lynch mob still exists. There were several attempts to attack Kanhaiya. It may happen with us also.

So life is not the same as it was one and half months back.

Life is going to be very different from now. I don't know what is going to happen in the coming days.

SW: Do you consider yourself lucky that you got arrested and due legal process was followed under a constant media gaze?

Anirban: Of course. I mean there are two levels at which we were lucky. I don't think Pansare, Kalburgi and Dabholkar got a chance for any trial. They were just killed on the streets. There were no charges, nor any trial. We are lucky that we at least got that chance.

We are also lucky due to our class background, the fact that we are JNU students and the fact that civil society and democratic forces stood with us.

SW: How were you treated by the police in custody?

Anirban: I think my presence was kind of destabilizing that pattern. They would have rather wanted me to be not there. Or they would have also wanted me to be a Muslim.

Umar: It started much before our arrest. It started with the my profiling in the media. I have no qualms in saying that this started only because of my religious identity.

I remember after coming out I had said 'My name is Umar Khalid and I'm not a terrorist.' All the cops found it very amusing. So the every interrogation would start with policemen in Haryanvi saying 'Tu apne aap ko Shahrukh Khan samajhta hai?'