“The nineteenth-century lynching mob cuts off ears, toes, and fingers, strips off the flesh and distributes portions of the body as souvenirs among the crowd.” – Ida B. Wells
What is mob lynching? Why does it happen? Why are so many brutally people killed every year? Why are the majority of them Muslims or Dalits?
More importantly, what has the government done so far to tackle this issue?
Last year, the Supreme Court had released an 11-point guideline to be followed by every state to end mob lynching. In January 2019, Manipur assembly framed an anti-lynching law setting an example for the rest of the states. The government had also created a panel headed by Rajnath Singh to deal with this issue, but any positive impact is yet to be seen.
Rajasthan has also introduced an anti-cow slaughter bill in the state to bring relief to meat traders from cow vigilantes. Will the Manav Suraksha Kanoon (MASUKA) begin a legal conversation against Lynch mobs? Let’s hope so.
It is well said by Martin Luther King Jr, “Law may not be able to make a man love him but it can keep the man from lynching him.”
It’s high time we acknowledged that there is a dire need of law on mob lynching in our country.