A group of Hindutva organisations, supporters and individuals turned up at Shivaji Park, Dadar on Sunday morning. Different groups—with men, women and some children—gathered at the Hindu Jan Akrosh Morcha, held by Sakal Hindu Samaj, winding from the Meenatai Thackeray statue at Shivaji Park towards Prabhadevi’s Kamgar Maidan. There were a plethora of banners about opposition to love jihad, dominating the narrative.

Participants were taken to the venue by buses, but many of them were locals, taking a break from their routine Shivaji Park morning walks or runs to trade spandex for saffron. One group of gents, waiting for the march to start, said, “We are here to protest love jihad. This is a fallacy that love jihad happens only in rural areas or is absent from Maharashtra. We want the government here in the state to bring in legislation against love jihad. This cyclone should not hit our homes. There are some states that have legislation, what about here?”