It is a bitter reality that we never thought of that the human values of tolerance are to kiss of death and horrendous acts of mobocracy are being created across the country. It was heart ranching to read the incident of 24 yrs old person named Shams Tabrez, taking place in Jharkhand, who was caught by the mob, tied to a pole, beaten for more than seven hours and ultimately died. Was it not a horrific murder in the name of religion? How human beings can be such cruel as human life has less important than a vermin?
The most ridiculous fact in such cases is that the administration tries to protect the criminals rather than to stand shoulder to shoulder with victims or bereaved families! The government and administration should realize that lynching and mob violence of any kind shall invite serious consequences such as anarchy, chaos, disorder and eventually there can be an emergence of a violent society.
Mob violence has been a concerning matter in India for a couple of years as the country has witnessed a spate of mob attacks in some past years. The elements that fuelled this bloody mix include religious fanaticism (specifically, cow protection), increased penetration of social media and politicians, who ranged from being apathetic to instigators of violence.
Though there are no government statistics of hate crimes in India there are a few media outlets that have attempted to track them. According to IndiaSpend, there have been 117 Gau Raksha-related incidents of violence in India since 2015. As per media reports, there have been 88 people killed in lynching since 2015 across India.
The Supreme Court, in July 2018, has recommended the Centre and states to put some preventive measures in place in order to combat the incidents of mob lynching. However, regretful to say, the result nowhere is seen. It is the duty of the State to ensure the law and order in the country. So why then the states remained unsuccessful to carry out its responsibility in this regard?
The Supreme Court also commanded the government to bring legislation that specifically targets lynching. Apart from this SC ordered states to appoint nodal officers to prevent such incidents. Despite all the directions from the Apex Court, the incidents are taking place frequently.
I don’t know why the government has made all intentions and priorities to enact a law against Triple Talaq while the innocent people are being killed mercilessly all over the country? As far as the legislation regarding lynching is concerned, neither opposition nor ruling parties seem to be serious to prevent threatening incidents.
However, more sorrowfully, the political parties and their leaders use these incidents as to suit their own political vested interests not to satisfy the victim’s demands.
So, there is only one way to restrain public lynching that is the government must put harsh and preventive measures to set an example for the culprits. In addition to it, we every individual citizen, must commence discouraging such elements that have this sort of thinking because it is hazardous for the entire nation if we remain, mute spectators, not uttering a word concerning the incident happening in our surrounding, we lead the country to a disastrous situation and we only would be the responsible.
By Faheem Usmani Qasmi
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
