The frequent mob lynching incidences in India, is a serious matter of concern. In India, almost by every passing week a vedio of mob lynching case gets surfaced on social media in which you can watch the mob mercilessly beat some one till his gruesome death. However there may be hundreds of other such kind of incidents which couldn’t get coverage under the media. The incidents of mob lynching were not so common before the advent of BJP government in centre , but after it such infamous incidents spread out like the wild fire.
The mob lynching incident that was highlighted on national as well as international media in 2015 was of 52 years old Mohammed Ikhlaq who was a muslim by religion, who lived in Dadri about 25 Kilometres away from Delhi the national capital. The son of a local BJP leader of his village provoked the people of village that Mohammad Ikhlaq had kept some beef of a stolen calf in the fridge and was about to eat that. A huge mob of local people gathered in his house and beat Mohammed Ikhlaq ruthlessly by sticks and bricks till his death. Later the forensic lab tests revealed that Ikhlaq had kept mutton in the fridge. The accused criminals later got bailed and are freely roaming in the streets of Dadri. Since no strict action was taken against the involved culprits , after the death of Mohammed Ikhlaq, hundreds of such kind of incidents took place in india and the number is increasing by every passing day.
The people who commit such heinous crimes cite the reason of religious issue, but when you go a little closer to it , the only reason behind most of the mob lynching cases was basically political. It has been found through social media that most of the incidents took place based on the suspection of cow slaughtering , the victims for which were mostly being made the people of muslim minority. The infamous GOW RAKSHAKS ( Cow Protecters) who were later found to have a good affiliations with some political parties in India but claim to be the custodians of Hindu religion and after committing such heinous crimes they give it the name of cow protection.
Though most of the people in the country want to live with religious brotherhood and harmony but the background of such mob lynching cases that has been found is mostly religious politics, where minorities are oppressed and suppressed for keeping the vote bank of hindu majority intact, but consequently it would take U-turn and will prove counterproductive for the future of country , if the inter religious gap gets diverged due to religious politics.
Though it has been observed that most of the victims beaten till death had not been involved in cow slaughtering but on the basis of suspection people had taken law into their own hands and did such cowardly cruel acts by thrusting selective persons. Ironically the accused count such shameful acts among the so called good deeds of religion.
As far as lawful action against such cruel killers is concerned, no satisfactory action has been taken against most of the killers. If India claims of its big democracy and secular country , then why the killers are roaming openly through the roads and streets of country with hands red with blood stains of innocent victims of minority. Who allow them to do such crimes which are perhaps not the crimes in the books of law in India. At any cost humanity will never allow mob to break their anger on a single helpless person, beat him to pulp until his death infront of a huge gathering , even camera persons remain busy to cover the incident but no one comes to his rescue. No doubt all the people in the country are not same. But this kind of attitude among some of the people of India tarnish the image of country, depicting socially underdeveloped position of the country and hollowness of slogans regarding the secularism, where minority is still not safe even after seven decades time of freedom from British colonial rule.
The question is why those who commit such barbaric crimes in front of masses don’t care of law. Doesn’t they fall under it’s ambit, then for whom the law is made. Why the police and associated authorities delay to probe the incidents of mob lynching. Even after the videos of hundreds of cases have gone viral on social media, why the police is yet busy to sought out the evidences. People conceive and suspect that there is definitely a political interference in the cases being pleaded , that is why none of the killers found guilty for mob lynching has been punished as per the law. One comprehends; It will lead India to worst state of home affairs if the harsh steps are not taken to deal with the criminals found accused and guilty to provoke the people to do such heinous, shameful and cowardly acts by sidelining the law.
So the government in centre as well as the government in the states of India should take the alarming situation of mob lynching in country in their prime notice and should come forward for the sake of the future of the society. Stern action against culprits is needed. Moreover for the sake of religious harmony, authorities should disallow the politicians to do politics on religious lines.
(The author is a freelancer. His views are personal)