People across the nation and even some parts of the world are turning up in large numbers against public lynchings of people across the nation especially of Muslims and Dalits over alleged eating and storing of beef, killing or transporting of cows, or at places just because you belong to a certain community.

The trigger to protest has been the stabbing to death of 15-year-old Junaid Khan on a moving train barely a week ago. But there were scores of others before. Pehlu Khan, a dairy farmer was beaten to death for transporting cattle, Mohammad Akhlaq who was lynched in Dadri over suspicion of storing beef, before him, there was the murder of Mohsin Sheikh. And in between, there were scores of others. Recently DSP Ayyub Pandith was beaten to death in Kashmir. In between Farrukh was killed for being an atheist. Make no mistake, it isn’t just Muslims that are killed mobs have ‘mistakenly’ killed Hindus as well. There was flogging of Dalits in Una which resulted in widespread protests over dead cows. The Recent killing of four in Jharkhand over rumors of child kidnapping. The list is long, names a plenty but in all, it’s the mob that rises over rumor and suspicion, and murders people while they beg to be heard, they fold their hands and plead the crowd to stop but the crowd cares none. They go ahead and kill their prey like savages.

People have written on lengths about the injustice meted out to certain communities over their food habits or just because they practice a certain religion different from perpetrators. There have been enough columns against mob violence and lynchings. There is no doubt, such acts are wrong. Forget innocents, even if someone is criminal, you or mob have no rights to murder him/her. You can’t lynch, fog or beat to death someone on suspicion, or for any reason. Your job is to inform the police. Let them investigate and let courts punish. India is a democratic nation which is governed by rules and regulations. And lynchings are illegal by law, so far at least. If you believe otherwise, if you believe mob-violence or lynchings have a place in a democratic, law-abiding society, then please consider not reading any further. The rest who believe mob-violence shouldn’t be the norm (agree with not agree with protests), you can continue.

There was a considerable crowd in the protests. But that is not to say, all supported the protests. Some pointed out few anomalies.

Lynchings have occurred before Modi too

Yes, they have. There are two aspects to this. One, their numbers have increased considerably after 2014. As IndiaSpend piece pointed out, 86% Dead In Cow-Related Violence Since 2010 Are Muslim; 97% Attacks After 2014. Second, what if there has been violence before? “Whataboutery” is fine. It serves the purpose of bringing out the hypocrisy of people. Did you, the reader, knew about lynchings and mob violence before 2014? You might have, you might have not. If you did, did you cringe? If you didn’t know about it, it was probably because of media not covering it. There must be stimuli to react to anything. Without that stimuli, how and to what would one react? Without the knowledge of injustice, what would you protest against? ‘It had happened before too’ can’t be the reason why it should happen again now. Mob violence and lynchings are wrong, then, now or in future, it doesn’t matter when. So come out of that shell and go shout “Not In My Name”.

This Is Political.

Of course, it is. Anything that has to do with public affairs is political. This too is. Saba Dewan, Delhi-based filmmaker, whose Facebook post paved way for these protests, told Huffington Post in an interview,

Over the past few years, as one was watching and witnessing the systemic violence that is being unleashed on Dalit, Muslims and minorities, there was a rising sense of disquiet about what the hell was happening. There was discomfort that the government has chosen to stay quiet about the attacks on Muslims. In some ways, you become complicit in this violence by keeping quiet. I didn’t want to be complicit in this. I wasn’t a part of this. I am an ordinary citizen. I have never done street-level protests. Yet, the tipping point came with the lynching of Junaid. The first lynching in 2015 shook us up. Over the last two-and-a-half years, lynchings were getting normalised and that was frightening. But Junaid was just a child. He was 15 and got killed by a mob near Delhi, my city. It was shattering. I was upset that evening and kept wondering why someone wasn’t starting an organised protest so that I could join it. We wait for an eternity for someone to protest, but we are the citizens of the country and we have a stake in it. We had no idea how this would grow and pan out. I just asked some people on Facebook if we can do this protest. The response was very encouraging.Then someone suggested we make an event page. The next morning we realised that this was going viral.

I don’t know if protests were orchestrated by any political party or not but they happened. And of course, the opposition parties supported them and voiced their opinions in as many similar ways as BJP did with Anna Movement against then government of Manmohan Singh. Ruling party had then called Team Anna as B-Team of Congress. Ruling dispensation always tries to discredit the protesters. Don’t fall into their trap.

Why not protest on farm suicides or other issues?

You are right. They should. People should come out in large numbers when farmers protest. Many do. But hold on, why does a protest require its participants to first participate into another? Can that not follow after this as well? In any case, even if they don’t, how does that matter. You feel strongly about something and then you come and support that cause. Simple. This isn’t algebra where Y can come only after X. Don’t mix up different issues.

Anyway, people have every right to discredit the protesters, call hypocrisy of those who are attending, throw data at them of past murders, but do you support what is happening in the name of religion? Do you support people being killed over bovines? Do you support mob violence? If not, then go on. Do we want the mob violence to continue or do we want it to end? If we wish it to end then we need to ask for its end. And that time is now.

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” — Chinese Proverb

To plant or to protest and ask for change, the best time always is, now, at this very moment.

It is failure of law and order, not BJP

R Jagannathan wrote a piece in Swarajya Magazine titled, Roots Of Mob Violence Lie In Lack Of Police Reform, Not In BJP’s Rise To Power. He is right. But partially. Yes, police are responsible for this violence as law and order are their domain. In fact, at few places police has stood guard while thugs burned property, beaten people and at few times, they themselves have shot people dead. But government at large is responsible too. One, it controls the police. The other question is, who is emboldening these religious fanatics? Why has the violence increased after Modi took power? Has government taken action against the police for not acting? Who will bring out the police reforms? Why have they not?

Difference between the past and present violence

In past when any such killings occurred, anyone from government condemned such violence outright without any ifs and buts. But now, people from the government are looking ways to not Condemn it. They are pointing to lapses here and there, asking to investigate whether meat in a refrigerator was beef or not, etc. What if the meat was beef? Does that justify public lynching? Lynchings or mob-violence in past were stray incidents but today they have been normalized. We have heard so many of them that we have become numb towards human suffering. Don’t forget, the body of Akhlaq’s murderer was draped in tricolor and the function was attended by a government minister. If this isn’t institutionalizing violence then what is?

Primarily, the government is not speaking of these violent acts. Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is otherwise so vocal and active on Twitter hardly finds time to respond to such violence. Ministers or spokespersons who do, go into technicalities, into investigating meat etc. This attitude sends wrong signs to people at large. It shows government supports these acts albeit covertly. And that’s worrying.

There are also people who are going into nitty gritty’s and pointing out how they forgot to mention a particular his and her killing. Fair point. But go make a placard, write down the names they forgot and the one’s you remember, go out and show it to the world. We are all humans, flawed in our own ways, no one is complete nor anyone perfect. We need each one to complete each another. But we all agree on some common questions. Like here, we agree on fatality of mob violence and lynchings. No sane society can support such inhumane acts. So forget politics, and lend your support.