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In the name of holy cow!

Kashmir Times. Dated: 5/22/2017 10:43:29 PM

Govt must take up responsibility of ensuring law and order, safety of citizens by cracking down on vigilantism and hooligans

The statements of two union ministers, Nitin Gadkari and Smriti Irani, distancing themselves from various vigilante groups while averring that BJP should not be held responsible for those who take law into their hands, hardly sound re-assuring when lawlessness and violent attacks are on the rise in the name of cow protection, checking eve teasing, conversions or child trafficking - all part of the pet project of the BJP. The Centre is clearly shirking its responsibility by putting the onus of enforcing law and order solely on the police and also by not taking into account the reckless hyper-ventilation of BJP's own leaders and ministers in putting the cow protectionist agenda on the over-drive, which has resulted in the ugly phenomenon of bullies on the streets trying to settle scores with people, mostly marginalised minorities. In many of the cases, the vigilantes are affiliated to different offshoots of the Sangh Parivar but the BJP has chosen to distance itself from them. BJP chief minister in Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Aditya Nath has been openly patronizing such hooligan elements affiliated to Yuva Vahini and they have been involved in shocking incidents of cow vigilantism, anti-Romeo squads and attacks on pretext of 'Love-Jehad'. Instead of law and order machinery acting against the hooliganism, in many cases, the police vacillates between filing criminal charges against the attackers and the victims themselves. Such impunity is further broadening the space of the vigilante groups and hooligans. It is as yet not known whether the shocking lynching of 7 people in Jharkhand following rumours of child trafficking is linked to the saffron groups but the increasing liberty with which bullies on streets and the cyber world are operating creates, with political patronage that is sometimes brazen or comes with criminal silences at the top echelons of power, creates space for any kind of mob taking law into its hands. Needless to point out that three of these murders happened in front of the police and one of those lynched was seen in a horrifying photograph pleading for mercy and soaked in blood minutes before he was killed by thrashing.
Other recent incidents reveal how the saffron agenda of the BJP and RSS is stoking fire. In Madhya Pradesh, 50 Christian children on way to attend a religious ceremony were offloaded and detained in a police station following rumours of religious conversions. Earlier this month, an upper caste mob ransacked and burned down 25 houses belonging to Dalits, and injured 15 members of the community in Saharanpur. The spiraling rise in such incidents in Uttar Pradesh ever since Hindutva inspired Yogi Aditya took over as chief minister of the state brought thousands of Dalits under the banner of Bhim Ekta Army to New Delhi's Jantar mantar area on Sunday in protest against the persecution of the marginalized backward classes. The huge rally reveals the severity of the issue at hand. In the face of that, both the Centre and the BJP ruled states have been treating the criminal bullies with kid gloves. It is not known why police machinery is guided by rumours and allows itself to become a mute spectator. A month ago in Reasi, police was a similar witness as goons attacked and mercilessly beat up nomadic people carrying bovines. Even more shocking, the BJP instead of cracking down on such vigilante groups that are not only promoting a saffron agenda but also pushing the country into deeper lawlessness, is either maintaining cryptic silence or passing the buck. As a government in power elected to protect the security and rights of its individuals, it is incumbent upon the BJP to use its entire machinery to check the hooliganism that exhibits itself on the streets on a daily basis and with far greater regularity on the social media. Mere feeble statements of denial and distancing will not do. Even if such words be taken on their face value, it is pertinent to ask, what indeed is the government doing to crackdown on this dangerous phenomenon of vigilantism and mob mentality.