when does mob change into mob violence
Answers
On June 18, 2018, Mohammed Qasim (45) was beaten to death by the cow vigilant mob on the rumors and allegation of cow smuggling. The video surfed in the internet claiming and hailing punishment for the cow slaughter engaged by the victim. Subsequently, the picture of the victim was being dragged by the group of people in the presence of Uttar Pradesh Police, which has gone viral and exposed a larger question of State complicity and police incapability to protect the individuals from mob lynching. The mob lynching is slowly becoming a contesting topic among the political establishments on how to stop and prevent the mob lynching in India.
The closer analysis of the increasing systematic and organized pattern of mob lynching clearly implicates that the mob lynching is driven by the religious animosity against the Muslims on the pretext of protecting the cow. India Spend database records that 86 incidents related to the cow mob violence occurred since 2012 and the Muslim individuals records highest in the victims of Mob lynching accounting of 64 percent, followed by 11 percent of Dalit victims. Further as many as 97 percent of these attacks were reported after the Narendra Modi’s government came into the power. The instances of Junaid Killing, Akhlaq Killing, Pehlu Khan and many more are examples of widespread culture of mob lynching targeted against the Muslims and Dalit with absolute impunity.
The sharp increasing mob lynching against Muslims, Dalit is strikingly similar to the mob lynching perpetrated against African Americans and Mexian Origins by the Southern White mobs in U.S.A. However, the only difference is that there State legislation had concluded lynching as separate form of crime, but in India, we still debate whether the State needs to enact or promulgate a separate criminal legislation with the purpose to address the root causes of mob violence and whether there exist any legal methods to prevent and punish the perpetrators of large-scale systematic mob lynching.
However, Manipur State stood an exception to the general rule of delaying and denying the need to curb the mob lynching. The Manipur Assembly unanimously passed the ‘The Manipur Protection from Mob Violence Act, 2018’ on 21st December, 2018 (Friday) in the wake of rising incidents of mob lynching in the State.
This article endeavor to discuss the fundamental question whether the ‘The Manipur Protection from Mob Violence Act, 2018’,(Hereinafter ‘Act’)is model for the effective legal tool against the increasing mob violence in India. In the Part I, the author shall discuss about the legislation against mob lynching is furtherance of constitutional obligation of the State to prevent the non-state actors from violating the Right to Life enshrined in the Article 21 of the Constitution. Further, the author will also discuss about the need of separate criminal legislation for mob lynching in spite of Indian Penal Code, 1860. In the Part II, the author endeavor to critically analyze and scrutinize whether the substantive provision of the act is sufficient to prevent and punish the crime of mob lynching, including the primary drawbacks or criticism of the act.
When the behavior of mob turns into violence then it is mob violence.