Never have any religious book ever predicted that there will come a day when they themselves would become a reason of war and mortality around the earth. Whoever thought that the man will use a weapon of religion to launch out his aggression? Well, now we have mob lynching’s going around on a foundation as unstable as suspicion. What’s mob lunching and why is it going around? Let’s mob it.
Lynching is an unauthorized way of punishing somebody by an unofficial group. It is mostly known as ‘informal public executions’ by a mob who wishes to punish reported culprit or to frighten a group. Lynching generally arises in India due to tensions between two cultural groups. Recent incidents, where your blood should boil, when you learn how Rakbar Khan bled to death, or just in moment when we were trying to understand this murder, comes news of another beating. This time the location is Ghaziabad and the crime of the culprit Muslim man is that he was there to marry a Hindu woman. Another vital sin, but luckily the police arrived in time.
Not long ago, many parts of India noticed mob violence based on rumors that people hold the possession of cow meat or were smuggling cows. But the series of mob violence from April this year were stimulated due to the fear of child abduction. In the name of protecting cows, the self-proclaimed “cow protectors” hailed brutality in several parts of the country.
Let’s twist the sands of TIME
July 1, Maharashtra
In Maharashtra’s Dhule district, five people were killed by villagers who were suspected to be part of a gang of child lifters. It was told by police that there were rumors for the past few days on social media that a gang of child lifters was active in the region.
A mentally disturbed woman was tied to a pole, the same day and tortured by a village mob in Assam’s Sonitpur district, doubting her to be a child-lifter. Similarly, two migrant laborers survived a similar attempt in Chennai. They were thrashed by a mob on suspicion of being child-lifters.
June 28-29, Tripura
Allegedly three separate lynching cases were reported from Tripura – all on the speculation of being child-lifters. The occurrence took place in three different districts of Tripura. A woman, a hawker from Uttar Pradesh and a man hired by the Tripura government to fight rumor mongering, were the victims.
“It has been noticed that SMS, WhatsApp and social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are being widely used for transmission of fake images and videos as well as text messages which have potential to incite violence in the state at a larger rate.” – Tripura DGP AK Shukla
June 26, Gujarat
A mob of around 30 people in Ahmedabad trashed a 40-year-old woman to death on the speculation of being a child-lifter. A 45-year-old woman was assaulted, in another occurrence in Surat for the same reason.
Reportedly victim woman was attending a family function. She had come out to buy balloons for her three-year-old daughter when she was attacked by a mob which snatched her child away from her.
Trailing the lynching of Ahmedabad, Gujarat Police issued consulting warning to people against taking law in their hands and asking them not to believe social media rumors about child-lifting gangs.
June 22, Chhattisgarh
An unknown man was allegedly beaten to death by a mob in Sarguja district of Chhattisgarh. The assaulters doubted the victim to be a child- lifter.
Only hours earlier, the man had arrived at the Mendrakla village, where he was lynched. Police said that rumors about a gang of child-lifters revolving in the area thanks to social media.
June 19, Uttar Pradesh
Following rumors of cow slaughter, a man was lynched in Hapur district of Uttar Pradesh. Police, in the beginning, denied the cow slaughter angle. But later videos came up allegedly showing a mob beating up a man and forcing him to admit to having slaughtered a cow.
Police confessed that there were rumors that the incident was a result of cow slaughter. Also, the lynching went viral on social media.
June 13, West Bengal
In West Bengal’s Malda district, a man was lynched on speculation of being a child-lifter. He was tortured as people tied him to an electric post and beaten to death.
The man was allegedly homeless and terrified when he was attacked by an angry mob.
June 8, Assam
In Assam’s Karbi Anglong district two men were lynched. Victims identified as Nilotpal Das and Abhijeet Nath were hit by bamboo poles and wooden sticks by a frenzied mob while they had gone to Kangthilangso, a picnic spot in Karbi Anglong.
On their way back, they were stopped by a group of villagers at Panjuri and lynched. Assam Police arrested more than 70 people for murder and spreading rumors on social media.
June 8, Maharashtra
In Aurangabad district of Maharashtra, two men were beaten to death by a mob. Police said that the lynching was initiated by fake messages in dissemination on WhatsApp. The villagers assaulted the victims on speculation of being robbers.
May 28, Andhra Pradesh
A mob of over 500 people lynched a transgender on suspicion of being part of a child-lifting gang. The occurrence took place in the old Hyderabad city. Police said that transgender had come from Mahbubnagar district to Hyderabad during Ramzan. They were spotted begging in the old city area.
At the same time, a message had gone viral on social media claiming that the members Pardhi gang were kidnapping children and killing them to harvest their organs in Hyderabad.
May 25, Karnataka
A 26-year-old man was lynched on the speculation of child-lifting. The video of lynching gone viral on social media shows that the victim was dragged by two men in the streets of Bengaluru’s Chamrajpet area.
Police said that rumors were circulated on social media about a gang of child-lifters being
active in Bengaluru.
May 24, Telangana
On May 24 two different incidents of mob lynching’s were reported from Telangana– one each from Nizamabad and Yadadri districts. They were killed on the speculation of being child lifters, police said.
The man who got killed in Nizamabad went there to meet a relative but got nervous when he was attacked by a mob. His answers did not quench a wild mob and was lynched.
May 10-11, Tamil Nadu
In a span of 24 hours in Tamil Nadu, two cases of lynching were reported. In the first incident, in Pulicat, a man was beaten to death and hung from a bridge on speculation that he was a child-kidnapper. In the other incident, in Tiruvannamalai district, a 60-year-old woman was lynched for giving “foreign chocolates” to children.
Tamil Nadu police said that fake messages disseminating on WhatsApp led to the twin-lynching. The messages asked the local residents to not to trust immigrants claiming that they were a part of child-lifting gang.
BLAME GAME
“Despite law and order being a state subject, Centre cannot keep quiet. Twice, the Centre issued advisories. These kinds of incidents take place using social media as tool to propagate fake news. We have asked social media service providers to install checks in their system to prevent such incidents. Such incidents are unfortunate and I request state governments to take appropriate actions against the culprits.” – Rajnath Singh, Union Home Minister while criticizing recent mob-lynching incidents, said in the Lok Sabha
“Policemen in #Alwar took 3 hrs to get a dying Rakbar Khan, the victim of a lynch mob, to a hospital just 6 KM away. Why? They took a tea-break enroute. This is Modi’s brutal “New India” where humanity is replaced with hatred and people are crushed and left to die.” –@RahulGandhi
“Stop jumping with joy every time a crime happens, Mr Rahul Gandhi. The state has already assured strict and prompt action. You divide the society in every manner possible for electoral gains & then shed crocodile tears. Enough is Enough. You are a merchant of hate.” – @PiyushGoyal
“As Modiji becomes more popular, such incidents will take place. Modiji is making difference at the ground level, this is a reaction.” – Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal
“These lynching cases won’t stop until cow slaughtering stops.” – T Raja Singh, BJP MLA from Telangana
“Cow protectors are protectors. How can they be killers? Killers cannot be protectors.” – Vinod Bansal, spokesperson Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP).
UPA V/S NDA
RULING PARTY V/S RULED PARTY
India has past record for several mob lynching’s due to some or the other reasons. It would be shocking to know that, 84% killed in cow-related violence since 2010 are Muslim, and 97% attacks were happened after the Modi government came to power.
Increasing number of incidents per year.
Year |
Incidents |
Deaths |
Injured |
2012 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
2013 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
2014 |
3 |
0 |
11 |
2015 |
12 |
10 |
38 |
2016 |
24 |
8 |
50 |
2017 |
37 |
11 |
141 |
2018 |
8 |
4 |
11 |
States reporting the highest number of cases: 2010-2017
1. Uttar Pradesh (9)
2. Haryana (8)
3. Karnataka (6),
4. Gujarat (5)
5. Delhi (5)
6. Rajasthan (5)
7. Madhya Pradesh (4)
· Muslims were the aimed of 52% of violence centered on cattle related issues over nearly eight years (2010 to 2017) and comprised 84% of 25 Indians killed in 60 incidents.
· Allegedly 97% of these attacks were reported after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government came to power in May 2014, and half the cow-related violence–30 of 60 cases–were recorded from states governed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) when the attacks were reported, until June 25, 2017.
· Out of the 25 Indians who died over the period of eight-years, 21 were Muslim or 84%. As many as 139 people were also injured in these attacks. More than half (52%) of these violence were initiated on rumors.
· 2017 proved to be the worst year since in this case the first six months, 18 cow-terror attacks were reported–75% of the 2016 figure.
· 30 out of 60 cases bovine violence were from states governed by BJP.
· There was no report of attackers being arrested, in 5% of the attacks.
· The police registered cases against the victims/survivors; in only 18 attacks (30%).
· Reportedly in 24 attacks, the attackers were groups of people who belonged to Hindu groups, like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal, and local Gau Rakshak Samitis.
· Out of 60 attacks, 31 attacks since 2010 were initiated on rumors.
· One report demonstrates that 2,097 such murders were executed between 2000 and 2012 in at least 12 states.
Aggression above the POPULARITY
The very recent case in this never-ending chain of disgrace was on eminent director Sanjay Leela Bhansali and his crew in Jaipur. The attacker once again happened to be a mob of goons who were out to requite their assumption of history, tradition, and religion.
In the name of protecting cows, the self-proclaimed “cow protectors” attempt brutality in several parts of the country. Though they were inaccessible incidents, the victims mostly belong to the minority and socially disadvantaged communities. It is not necessary that the vigilant mob is limited to minorities but wherever and whatever they feel aggressive about they will initiate the violence recently 79-year-old social activist, Swami Agnivesh is another victim for these inhuman ‘decision makers’.
Culminating the LYNCHING’S?
The lack of government involvement has allowed these acts of cruelty and harshness to continue as substitute solution to instant “trial and justice” for any recognized religious or social digressions. The fact that an individual or a group feels empowered to submit to violence to revenge a possible threat to religious/cultural beliefs, and then gets away without any repercussion, says a lot about the deficiency of Indian governments in protecting their citizens.
Mob lynching’s also raise another worrying question: are people losing faith in the judicial/democratic system of governance? And because a mob omits what it feels is justice by itself, it often chooses its victim and the mode of justice. The recurrence of the cases has led to a need for an anti-lynching law. But there are ample of provisions in the Indian Penal Code — for example, Sections 302 (murder), 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 307 (attempt to murder), 34 (Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) — to handle such incidents. These need to be implemented strictly and effectively. States were asked by the Supreme Court to take strong measures, in September 2017, including appointing nodal officers at district level, to control such instances of brutality in the name of cow protection, but nothing much has happened till date.
The Supreme Court adjured the Parliament to formulate a special law against mob violence; the center proclaimed its conclusion to form a Group of Ministers (GoM) devotes to make directions on the matter. Last week, the highest judicial forum had ordained that “the horrendous acts of mobocracy cannot be permitted to inundate the law of the land.”
While sanctioning a series of “preventive, remedial and punitive” measures to deal with murders and self-appointed groups, the bench had also said, “apart from the directions… we think it appropriate to recommend to… Parliament to create a separate offense for lynching and provide adequate punishment for the same. We have said so as a special law in this field would instill a sense of fear for the law.”
Within a week of this announcement, the Centre agreed on the formation of a GoM under Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh besides another high-level committee under Union Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba to “deliberate” and “make recommendations” for a “separate panel provision” on occurrence of mob lynching’s.
Though the verdict is out, it is yet to be seen for how long it will hold its stance and will the number of murders dwindle? Because it’s not the number that has to be reduced but the mentality and thinking of highly religious Indians which has to be dealt with.
No fatality of HINDU or MUSLIM
DEMOCRACY Cripples as the only VICTIM