Politics & Mob Lynching - A Conflict?
POLITICS AND MOB LYNCHING- A CONFLICT?
- Akhilesh Aggarwal, Symbiosis Law School, Pune
“In a democracy the poor will have more power than the rich, because there are more of them, and the will of the majority is supreme.”
-Aristotle
Indian Democracy is based on the applicability of the Indian Constitution which in turn is dependent on four pillars for its continued existence- Executive, Legislature, Judiciary and the Media. Any of these pillars interfere in the other’s working and the peaceful co-existence of this democratic setup is put into question. Article 21 of the Constitution of India guarantees to every person his life and liberty which canonly be deprived according to procedure established by law. Every person in India as well as the Government are supposed to follow the Rule of law. If the death penalty by way of shooting publicly is not permitted under the law, it cannot be so executed even by the Government for, howsoever, serious and heinous crime may be.
The Rule of Law must always be upheld and it can be done only when people and institutions follow and respect laws. In this same regard, Justice Dipak Misra observed that
“A right is conferred on a person by the rule of law and if he seeks a remedy through the process meant for establishing the rule of law and it is denied to him, it would never subserve the cause of real justice.”[1]
However, the stable connection in this setup is challenged time and again by various anti-social issues, one of them being the growing number of cases of mob lynching. Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group of people. When an accused person (offence being criminal in nature) is killed by an uncontrolled crowd in some or the other way, then it is being called Mob Lynching. It is often conducted with the display of a public spectacle for maximum intimidation. It is to be considered an act of terrorism and punishable by law. Instances of lynching and similar mob violence can be found in every society.
Mob Lynching in the world sphere is not a new issue. It was originated in an American village of Lynchburg (Virginia) and ever since been an issue of hot debate over various countries. Though most of the mob lynching cases in other nations can be narrowed down to white-black and nationality issues, the same cannot be said for India. The mob lynching in India has been on different issues which has been observed by the political parties of the country from their own point of view and whether the place is on the road or in the parliament, they use it to achieve their own personal political motives.
Mob Lynching cases have gradually developed over time. Though the primary reason for the mob lynching cases to rise to such an extent remains the incidents of mobs lynching that were carried out at a large scale in form of mass killing of ‘alleged’ cattle killers by the crowd of ‘self-claimed’ cow-guards popularly called as ‘gau-rakshak’. But this is not the sole reason for the cases of mob lynching. In several other states like Jharkhand and Bihar, it has also been emerged as declaring a woman as a witch resulting in her death by beating her brutally. Human Rights Watch had also reported that there has been a surge in cow vigilante violence since 2015.The surge is attributed to the recent rise in Hindu nationalism in India.[2]
Politics and Media clash over Mob Lynching-
According to the government reports, the communal violence has decreased rapidly since 2014. However, the numbers of cases of mob lynching have only increased manifold times than that of before 2014. Media houses report that times and again, the offenders have alleged that the men who were lynched had slaughtered cows or were thieves or other offenders but sometimes their only crime is that they are visibly Muslim. Political Leaders were of strong opinion that the mob lynches had nothing to do with the religion and opposition was bent on proving it to be a massacre against the Muslims. Here, the public came across a conflict between the two pillars of the democratic nation- Legislature and Media. Several media houses frequently reported new cases of lynching and while they echoed in television studios each time, stories of lynching briefly stirred our public conscience because the major reason was that the Muslims continued to traffic and slaughter cows, opposite to the sentiments of their Hindu neighbors. According to a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report, ban on beef legitimises vigilante activities by the government which supports such vigilante groups (eg. cow protection groups).[3]
However, the leader of the nation, Our Prime Minister Hon’ble Mr. Narendra Modi, addressed the nation in June 2017 and slammed the acts of the ‘Gau-Rakshaks’. He said, killing in the name of Gau Bhakti is wrong, no person is allowed to take the law in their own hand. It is unfortunate that in the name of cow protection the human being are killed by so called ‘Gau Rakshak’. In 2017, The Protection from Lynching Act, 2017 was also passed. This act particularly revolves around the issue of Mob Lynching and provides for the punishment of the offenders and also the remedies for the victims.
Chapter III-IV of the Protection from Lynching Act, 2017-
These chapters empower every police officer, in-charge of a police station to take all reasonable steps to prevent any incident of lynching, including its incitement, commission and possible spread; in the area under his jurisdiction. Also, empowering the police officer to exercise his authority on a mob in order to cause it to disperse.
The Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) under Section 223(a) provides that the mob involved in same offence in the same act can be tried together. The Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860 also has some proximate sections related to hate speech and hate crimes under Sections 153A, 153B, 505 but as seen in majority of the cases, these sections weren’t imposed upon the perpetrators and only sections against individuals such as Section 302(punishment for murder), 307(attempt to murder), 323(punishment for causing hurt), 325(punishment for causing grievous hurt) etc. are applied because of which the crime is seen as a n offence against individual and not the community. Such an approach is not justified as incidents like mob lynching are seen from communal lenses and are usually targeted against a certain minority, caste, religion, gender etc. and is a matter of public order and not merely an offence against a person. The offence of lynching usually takes place as an organized hate crime against a community so it must be considered as a heinous offence. [3]
The upsurge in the number of mob lynching cases has proved that communal harmony is very weakly rooted in the nation. Over few mild conflicts and difference of interests, people have bent upon merciless killing of humans. The primary task that the governments can ensure is to widen and stricken the punishment for the offenders and also those officials who refuse to aid the victim. However, this issue cannot be resolved by the Central or State governments alone. It is the duty of every individual of the society to maintain peace and harmony and prohibit any sort of discrimination. India has been a land of variety of ethnic groups, castes, creed, classes and many more. The Government has to adapt a moderate and active approach to keep all sections of the society peaceful and law-abiding.
Times and again, the issue of mob lynching has been politicized by various governments to foster their own vote banks. However, presently the Central government has issued advisories without delay and has taken prompt actions against the same. Appropriate laws and acts have also been passed to punish the offenders and maintain the harmony of the society. Mob lynching by Gau-Rakshaks is not the only subject matter of debate as it holds only one face of the coin. Several other questions still ponder upon the society’s norms as to why the majority of population’s sentiments are neglected to satisfy the few? Can the slaughter houses be instructed to conduct business without cow-slaughter? These are the rising questions that still hold a major role in the stability of the democratic setup. The government will have to moderately approach the same and choose the best for the society.
REFERENCES
[1] S. Krishna Sradha v. State of A.P., [2017] 4 SCC 516.
[2] Mob Lynching: A New Crime Emerging In Indian Society, Nitya Nand Pandey, 2018 IJRAR December 2018, Volume 5, Issue 4
<http://www.ijrar.org/papers/IJRAR1944490.pdf>
[3] Mob Lynchings in India: Present and Future Prospects, Ashraya Singh.
