This Blog is written By Miss. Shanu Yadav, Student of Lloyd Law College, Greater Noida.
From
: "We The People of India
To
: We The Mob of India".
Introduction
Remember something? Yes, you are right
these are the initial wordings of our legal document ’CONSTITUTION OF INDIA’.
The only difference between from and to is of the word that word 'PEOPLE' is
being swapped with the word 'MOB' which itself connotes the negative meaning,
pointing towards the group of people who try to show their superiority by doing
certain acts that create fear in the mind of the society and ultimately
results in Mob violence or Lynching.
India is the world's biggest
democracy and even more diverse one faces mob violence in the name of
religion, cow slaughter, beef consumption, kidnapping, organ-harvesting gangs, theft, etc resulting in cropping up of communal tension, harassment and
murder majorly.
This article mainly focuses on the concept,
reasons, recent cases, and government initiatives regarding mob lynching.
Concept
Mob lynching generally means an
"extra-judicial killing" by a group to punish an alleged transgressor.[1] It's an unlawful and informal act
that sets aside the legal proceeding and believes in Mob justice.
As per the reports of India spends database: it was stated that between 1st January 2017 and 5 July 2018, 33
persons have been killed and at least 99 injured in 69 reported lynching cases
.[2] As per The Quints: 113 people died
from incidents of mob violence in India since 2015.[3]
History
Word 'Lynch' was originated during the American Revolution
after the name of Charles Lynch and William Lynch. They coined the phrase
'Lynch Law' which meant punishment without trial.
Lynching continued to be associated
with US racial arrest during the 1950s and 1960s when civil rights workers and
advocates were threatened and even killed by mobs.[4]
Reality
We all come across several headlines
and videos flashing on our television screens and on social networking
sites. And one of them is the recent one which was being witnessed by the whole
nation during the countrywide lockdown on 16
April 2020,
famously known as 'the Palghar incident'.
Here, the mob attacked the two
ascetics and a driver while they were passing through the village to attend the
funeral of their Guru Shri Mehant Ram Giri in Surat. In between they were
stopped by the forest department on check post and they were suddenly
surrounded by the mob and were beaten to death in the presence of the police
officials.
As per the sources and published
media it was mentioned that the crowd had mistaken all the three men to be a
member of organ harvesting and child kidnapping gang who are active in that the area at night and this was the result of the fake news which was being
circulated through WhatsApp in the village.[5] It was also said that the police had
tried their best to save them but they couldn't due to the huge crowd and some
officers were also injured.
But as per the videos which went
viral on the social media of the incident, depicts another story leaving
behind certain questions :
a) Is it the way things really were?
Or they were portrayed by the officials?
b) Did really the officers tried to
save the three men?
c) Did really the officers were there
saviors or the major accused, who pushed all three of them towards the death?
These are the several questions
that will pop up in the minds of the people contradicting the statements of
the published media with that to the videos made by the bystanders.
Pehlu
Khan lynching Case, 1st April 2017: Dairy farmer Pehlu Khan (55) was brutally beaten up by the
cow vigilantes the so-called Gau Rakhshaks when he was returning towards his
hometown Nuh, Haryana after purchasing cattle from cattle fair, Jaipur. He was
stopped by the mob near Alwar Behror, alleging that he was smuggling cows for
slaughter.
He died on 3rd April 2017 in a hospital.[6]
Tabrez
Ansari Lynching Case,17 June 2017:
Tabrez 24 yr old youth, who was
working in Pune as a welder. He came to his hometown for his wedding which was
solemnized on 27 April 2017. But on the night of 17th June, he was caught by
the mob alleging of theft. They tied him with the pole, and forced him to
chant 'Jai Shri Ram' and 'Jai Hanuman' which can be clearly seen in the viral
videos of that horrifying night. He was even beaten with rods and sticks.[7]
And on 22 June 2017, he was dead due
to lack of proper medical attention.
Dadri
Mob lynching Case, 28 September 2015: Around 10:30 pm in the night, when the whole family was
sleeping, Mohd Akhlaq (52) and his 22-year-old son Danish Khan was attacked by
the mob in suspicion of slaughtering calf who was missing since few days. The
whole family was alleged of consuming and storing beef in the house.
Mohd Akhlaq died on the spot,
whereas his son faced serious head injuries resulting in head surgeries.
Samples of meat were collected and
were sent for tests twice, reports of which confirmed that the meat was not
beef but mutton.
This is not the end, the list is
much more extensive.
Reasons /
Causes
1)Feeling
or thinking of superiority: Sometimes tends to result in such acts which lead to the irreparable loss for the family.
Even under IPC the first stage of
crime commission is Men's rea ( ill intention). Sometimes to avoid physical acts the
ill ideological thinking should be tackled first, especially in crimes like
this which takes away the lives of innocents. As one can easily trace the ideas
behind these cases for eg: the thinking of cow vigilantes, they are the ones who
in the name of cow, god, the goddess does such acts.
2)Rise
in cow vigilantes: After
the suspension of the ban on the sale of cattle in July 2017, by Supreme Court,
relieving the leather and beef industries, India witnessed a rise in attacks on
minorities.
Human rights experts seek to
highlight the group of vicious individuals who are instigating such incidents.[8]
3)Fake
news /Rumors: A more dangerous weapon in the hands of the communal tension spreaders through
WhatsApp, Facebook, etc.[9]
4)Failing
Police administration :
This department is failing majorly in such incidents. Even having the arms and
right to use it for the protection of an individual they don't do so,
which can be easily used to deter the crowd.
Government Initiatives
1)
Creation of nodal officer: The central government has asked state governments to appoint nodal officers on
it's behalf, who will look after lynching matters.
2)
Creation of Two high-level committees: By Central government for seeking suggestions and legal a framework to deal with such incidents.[10]
Conclusion
To curb the incidents of mob
lynching the duo of government and citizens is required urgently. Being a
citizen of the nation it's our responsibility also to take care of each and
every member of the society keeping aside the concept of majority-minority and
superior-inferior.
Now the question is that how can we
contribute against mob lynching?
By breaking the chain of fake news virus, by ignoring messages, videos which tend to create religious
tension, acting responsibly by alerting the police regarding any such incident
instead of becoming a part of the mob, educating people on mob lynching through
street plays, movies, short films, posters.
No one is superior to the law of the land, if the
law of the land provides equality to all then no one should be made to feel
inferior, if the law of the land provides for the right to life to everyone then
no one is empowered so much to take away the life of anyone.
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