Opinion | Lynching in India: There’s a larger onus on BJP to lead by example

The central government’s response to the recent instances of mob violence and lynching across the country, many of them targeting minorities and Dalits, is a variation of shooting the messenger. It has blamed the medium – WhatsApp – instead of the message, most often fake news with a communal and polarising agenda that reflects intolerance and prejudice. The acts and statements of some Bharatiya Janata Party ministers has also resulted in conflicting signals of the government’s stance.

It has taken the Supreme Court to come down strongly on the State. On July 16, the apex court called such incidents 'horrendous acts of mobocracy.' In a 45-page judgment, it has said these hate crimes are a “product of intolerance, ideological dominance and prejudice [and] ought not to be tolerated; lest it results in a reign of terror.” It has laid down steps to tackle fake news and asked Parliament to pass a law making lynching a separate offence with severe punishment.

The ruling could not have come sooner. Vigilante violence has been the bane of law and order enforcement machinery in several states. In June, two people were lynched by a 200-strong mob after a rumour spread about child-lifters entering a village in Assam. In the same month a cattle trader in Uttar Pradesh was lynched over suspicion of cow slaughter. In May, two men were killed in Karnataka by a mob after word spread that they were kidnappers. In February, an Adivasi was beaten to death by a mob in Kerala that accused him of theft.

Indeed, a day after the court’s observation, activist Swami Agnivesh was beaten up in public in broad daylight by a mob in Jharkhand. Some reports accuse the youth wings of the BJP and the RSS for the attack.

On Wednesday, Jharkhand Urban Development Minister CP Singh called Agnivesh a 'fraud' and 'hypocrite' who staged the attack on himself. On Thursday, Home Minister Rajnath Singh condemned lynching and mob violence. He said the responsibility to prevent such attacks was with the state governments and blamed social media for the spread of fake news.

The government might not be keeping count, but deflecting the issue is not the solution. Being the party in power at the Centre and in most states across India, there is naturally a greater responsibility on the BJP to be in the forefront to tackle this menace, even if some instances of such violence have been reported from non-BJP ruled states.

What adds to the weight of criticism against the BJP is the actions of some of its leaders in such cases. For instance, take CP Singh’s statement: rather than condemning such an attack, without providing evidence, the minister is quick to blame the victim (Agnivesh). Earlier this month, Union minister Jayant Sinha garlanded eight convicts in a lynching case in Jharkhand after they were released on bail.  This was followed by Giriraj Singh, Minister of State for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, visiting riot-accused in jail in Bihar. Such acts send out a message that mob violence and lynching is condoned — and this goes against the government’s stand that violence of any kind is condemned. Remember, Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself had condemned vigilante violence in a speech last year.

So will a new law on lynching help in reducing mob violence and lynching?

“It is not a gap in the law that is a problem. The problem is that those who commit these crimes know that there is an impunity. They know that not only will they not be punished, but that they will also get some political favours because of the ideology of some political parties,” says Faizan Mustafa, Vice-Chancellor of NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad.

“The message that we are not going to tolerate such violence must come from the top. It will have a much greater impact than changing the law. Because the law in itself will not be able to change the mindset of people.”

There are also economic repercussions that violence and unrest bring. Violence forces businesses and potential investors to have second thoughts about investing in India. Slip-ups in law and order enforcement will detract from the improvements in the ease of doing business that has been achieved in recent years.

On its part, WhatsApp has announced that it is launching a test that will restrict forwarding messages to a maximum of five people or groups. But that is really not a solution. It is imperative for the governments, both at the Centre and state, to ensure that lynching and mob violence is checked. All political parties must also do their share, the BJP more because great power demands greater responsibility.