The Yogi government is considering a Mob lynching bill with the harshest punishments for all those involved in such a crime. The Uttar Pradesh State Law Commission has submitted a rock solid report to the UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, in which the penalties and even jail time for mob violence and lynchings have been postulated. It is a popular belief among anti-BJP vocalists that lynchings and mob violence have started occurring in India only after 2014 and that the presence of a BJP government at the Centre is the core cause of these criminalities. When asked for facts and data to substantiate these claims, the coterie falls silent. A law particularly pertaining to mob lynching shall deter such heinous crimes and also bust that narrative against the majority community in India.
As reported by The Indian Express, the draft report titled ‘Uttar Pradesh Combating of Mob Lynching Bill, 2019’ has been submitted to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath by commission chairman Justice (retd) Aditya Nath Mittal. The state law panel, while taking suo motu cognizance of incidents of mob lynching, has said that existing laws are not sufficient to deter the crime and there is need to not just punish the perpetrators but also hold authorities accountable for dereliction of duty if such incidents take place under their watch
The report recommends up to 7 years imprisonment if the victim is severely injured, and rigorous life imprisonment if the victim dies for all involved the crime including those who are involved in conspiracy abetting the crime as such role-players shall be treated as the same as the those directly involved. Report also threatens with up to 3 years imprisonment for police authorities who derelict their duties while being present in scene. The commission has postulated the following clauses in its report:
- Imprisonment up to 7 years and fine up to Rs 1 lakh if the victim is injured.
- Imprisonment up to 10 years and fine up to Rs 3 lakh if victim suffers serious injuries.
- Rigorous imprisonment for life and fine up to Rs 5 lakh if the victim dies.
- Those involved in conspiracy, abetment be punished like those actually involved in lynching.
- In case of dereliction of duty by police officer or district magistrate, imprisonment of one year, which may be extended to three years and fine up to Rs 5000.
- Imprisonment of six months for contributing or enforcing a hostile environment enabling mob lynchings.
The harsh punishments shall go a long way as a deterrent for mobs that engage in lynching and which go largely unpunished. It will also provide more serious statistics on mob lynchings, busting the narrative that only Hindus are involved in carrying out mob lynchings and that victims of mob lynching are only from one community. Popular Twitter personality, Anand Ranganathan has curated a comprehensive and bold thread over a period of a few years, busting the belief that mob lynchings are done only by Hindus. He mentions the murders and lynchings of people including Hindus under the hands of mobs of rogue members of other communities over communal matters. The purpose of such a thread is to counter the one sided narrative against the Hindu community.
https://twitter.com/ARanganathan72/status/1032534339798675457
He has listed out the ruthless murders of Ankit Saxena, Dhruv Tyagi, two elderly Sadhus that protested against cow smuggling, and hundreds other communal incidents with mob lynchings. Such events are usually completely blacked out as the media, especially the English media, overlooks these crimes, and selectively curates incidents that support an anti-hindu agenda. Such incidents, as in the case of Bharat Yadav, who was called a Kaafir before being lynched to death or the lynching and murder of Gangaram in Meerut, who filed a complaint against the kidnapping of his 13 year old daughter, are not met with ‘Not In My Name’ protests. The mindset with which certain sections of the media propagate such a narrative will be dealt a devastating blow for their dishonesty, if such a stringent law against mob lynching is brought into being.
The menace of lynchings/violence has been an issue which successive governments have failed to address in India. If Yogi Adityanath were to go ahead and implement the recommendations of this report in its totality, the anti-Hindu brigade would find it difficult to hide their faces. This brigade can concentrate all its efforts to somehow portray India as a regressive, rogue and a nation dominated by street goons. They occasionally cite examples of western nations to make Indians feel ashamed if theirs. However, mob violence is not a menace exclusively found in India. Lynchings in USA have been more prevalent than we talk of today. Lynchings rose after the American civil war in the late nineteenth century and the victims were usually African American. According to the Tuskegee Institute, 4,743 people were lynched between 1882 and 1968 in the United States of America, including 3,446 African Americans and 1,297 whites. But it was only in 2018, that the US government declared lynching a federal crime. India can and Yogi government may demonstrate that it is better late than never to bring a law that renders the mob lynching culture, its perpetrators as well as its enablers, utterly helpless while facing the wrath of the law.