BETTER late than never. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sent out a tough message to those who kill people, especially Muslims and lower-caste Hindus (Dalits) in the name of protecting cows, an animal Hindus consider holy. What he said was as important as the venue where he expressed his revulsion at the streak of violent incidents directed against minorities. Addressing a rally marking the centenary of Mahatma Gandhi’s Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, on Thursday, he said such mob lynchings and cow vigilantism was against Indian tradition.
Modi’s remarks came against the backdrop of growing incidents of violence blamed on the supporters of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) or those of organizations subscribing to its Hindutva ideology and the criticism of his silence over such vigilantism which many felt gave the impression that the prime minister was in tacit agreement with the perpetrators of violence.
The criticism of the authorities’ inaction assumed the form of protests last week when thousands of people across India took to the streets in a citizen’s campaign named “Not in My Name” against a spate of killings by mobs. Holding placards that read “Break the Silence”, “No place for Islamophobia” and “Shed hate, not Blood”, among others, the protesters said they had gathered to send out a message that there is a need to unite for a cause. What brought them to the streets in several cities was last week’s murder on board a train of a Muslim youth returning from Eid shopping. Fellow-passengers taunted the 16-year-old youth, Junaid and his family and repeatedly called them “anti-nationals” and “beef eaters”.
The latest killing shows that the public outcry and widespread condemnation of killing in September 2015 of 55-year-old Mohammed Ikhlaq by a mob on suspicion that he was carrying beef has not toned down the fervor of vigilante groups.
There are no official figures for those who suffered attacks or were killed. According to unofficial sources, more than 50 percent of victims or survivors, since 2010, of “violence centered on bovine issues” were Muslims. They also form 86 percent — 24 persons of the 28 — of those who died in these attacks. Some 97 percent of 63 incidents were reported after May 2014 when Modi assumed office. Almost half of these violent incidents took place in states where the BJP is in power. The highest number of such incidents was reported in 2016 — 25 incidents, or slightly more than two attacks every month. This year may well be more gruesome; 20 attacks have already been reported.
It is not Muslims alone who are the ones targeted. In several states and for several years Dalits have come under attack by vigilante groups who assumed that the dead cow they were skinning was actually killed by them. On the very day Modi addressed the people in Ahmedabad, a man was beaten to death by a mob in Ramgrah, (Jharkhand) on suspicion that he was carrying beef in his vehicle. A couple of days before a mob had attacked and injured a man in Giridh district in the same state on suspicion that he had slaughtered a cow.
All this has given rise to fears that India is witnessing a new form of mob violence with the connivance of state authorities. A lethal form of spontaneous mass violence seems to be deriving its justification in the name of nation or religion. There is evidence of a growing violence in other fields too.
Modi has lashed at those who take their concern for cow as a license to kill members of minorities. The people of India would have hoped for stronger words from him. After all, he is the one who shed tears for those who lost their lives in a forest fire in Portugal. Now what people expect of him and the chief ministers of BJP-ruled states is strong action. Muslims and Dalits may be their targets now; tomorrow it may be anybody who disagrees with them or toward whom they feel jealous.
