Indian civilization has been known for imparting certain fundamental values like tolerance, brotherhood, harmony, secularism, liberty, etc. across the globe. These values have preserved and protected the interests of minorities and vulnerable sections by keeping the unity of our diversified nation intact. However, the recent inhumane incidents of mob lynching like the Dadri incident, Tabrez in Jharkhand have put a stain on the social fabric of India.

The rising incidents of these mob-lynching and why law has failed to curb due to following reasons:

1. Lack of effective law and order – There are no stringent laws to penalize mob lynching. Lack of justice for victims further reinforces the vicious cycle of impunity. Also rather than taking swift action against perpetrators, law enforcement agencies act mostly against the victims themselves, booking them for violating cow protection laws.
2. Promotions of communalism by vested interests – Lynchings are encouraged by the atmosphere of hate and suspicion created through sustained propaganda. Cow vigilantism, which is a pretext to exacerbate social conflicts between religious communities, serves the political purposes of ideologies.
3. Role of violence in Indian politics – Popular anger, outrage, and violence are integral features of everyday politics in contemporary India. Thus mob feels empowered to take law into their hands.
4. Lack of public reaction – The lack of public reaction to recent incidents implies a degree of acceptability of violence as an expression of vengeance against ‘injustices’.
5. Silence of the political class – There is little condemnation of lynchings by those in positions of authority except in very generalized terms.
6. Misplaced fascination – The feeling that mobs are exacting Bollywood style justice beyond the procedures of law, with crowds of locals triumphantly watching the gruesome spectacle captured by videos that subsequently go viral, has its own vicarious fascination.

Ways to address them

1. The police must make it clear, by word and action, that murder and mob violence will be strictly dealt with.
2. The administration must also keep an eye on the use of social media, especially WhatsApp groups and forwards and prevent the spread of fear and panic.
3. Administration must reach out to local communities to keep them in the loop in order to check trouble-makers — and convey sufficient good faith so individuals will trust it to keep the peace and sift real threats from mischievous rumors.
4. Preventing further atrocities requires respect for the rule of law and legal institutions and strong prosecutions and expeditious punishments.
5. States must take specific preventive, punitive and remedial measures.
6. Special laws to deal with lynching like Rajasthan and West Bengal laws are the need of the hour along with the appointment of a nodal officer in each district to combat the threat.

To deal with lynching a law is the last tool needed. The need of hour is to promote the tenets of democracy that have shaped and sustained the idea of India. Otherwise, it can cause irreversible harm to the social fabric of our society