‘Violence in the name of Gau Raksha is intolerable!’ ‘States must ensure these incidents do not occur.’ ‘Do not link religion with the victims of such crimes’

The very next day after the Supreme Court said made these significant comments, a union minister has publicly felicitated a person accused of lynching another person, using the cover of Gau Raksha. Forget about protecting the country against violence in the name of Gau Raksha, the government itself is openly supporting them for whatever their worth. Do the words of Supreme Court even matter here? The act of this minister, is much like the mockery of all that SC said so far against Gau Raksha. Or, the government and Supreme Court are hand-in-glove with each other, while offering tacit support to the criminals to continue with their act of killing people.

A person was lynched in Jharkhand for carrying beef in his car. This was an act of communal violence because the person wasn’t carrying ANY meat in his car, let alone beef. The eight persons who did him to death, have a host of criminal cases riding on them. Totally 12 people have been accused of killing this person and 11 have been convicted for their crimes. Now eight of the accused have been released on bail by Jharkhand court. All the accused have been felicitated by union minister Jayant Sinha. And none of the other ministers have found this act objectionable, thus offering their indirect support to the act. Jayant Sinha is the son of Yashwant Sinha. And he has not hesitated from showering his appreciation to a lynchmob.

On one hand SC says Gau Rakshaks have to be controlled by the state and on the other, a minister felicitates them. Does this make sense at all? Can the BJP government ever dare to take action against fake Gau Rakshaks when they are shielded by ministers? Only the minister’s father Yashwant Sinha has taken serious objection to this act. The ruling by the SC does not make sense at all at the ground level.

What is the message a minister gives when he garlands a lynchmob fresh after they get out of the jail? If they were achievers such as scientists, writers or thinkers, the society would think they are role models. If a farmer who has achieved great feat at dairy farming and minister achieves them, there is a point in felicitating him. He would be projected as a fit role model for the others to emulate. This would also be a means of inspiration and employee generation for the others.

Today, the steps taken by the central government have been consistently destroying the industries everywhere. And the minister has shown the youth how to be inspiring to others, by way of felicitating a lynch mob. With this, he has shown that Gau Raksha is a way of murdering someone and still be honoured for it. He has sent a very significant message to the youth about where their priorities should be. This way, he has said when one is a Gau Rakshak, all the crimes in normal parlance are considered achievements per se. Earlier, stealing or mugging would be considered terrible offences both socially and legally. People would ostracized if they involved themselves in those crimes. Politicians would keep them at an arm’s length. But today, these aspects are considered as major achievements.

The politicians would love to have them close to themselves unmindful of the implications this would have on their social image. The act of minister could have been ignored if the accused were cleared of their charges after a trail. But that is not to be. A political party has publicized that people from particular crime background are members of their own party. So, what’s the point in SC stating the victims shouldn’t be seen as those from one particular religion.  

The only agenda of Gau Rakshaks is to create fear in the minds of people from a particular community and ensure minds are flared when they want to whip up violence. And a particular political party is the beneficiary of all this fear being played up. Hence the minister has been open enough to felicitate the accused so openly.

If the SC is indeed serious about controlling crime, it has to first ensure the message reaches the central government first. It has to direct the central government to put a check on such incidents, making it an equal partner in perpetuation of the crime. And the court should take steps to ban the Gau Raksha outfits. Else, soon enough, this country may be a sitting duck for murders, lynching and mugging for its main culture and this would happen sooner than we all can even realize!

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Imphal, Nov 21: The National People's Party (NPP), which recently withdrew support from Manipur’s BJP-led government alleging that the administration failed to resolve the crisis and restore normalcy, on Thursday said the party may reconsider the decision if the saffron party replaces Chief Minister N Biren Singh.

NPP national vice-president Yumnam Joykumar Singh also said that three of the party’s seven MLAs attended a meeting convened by the CM, but they should not have done so since support was withdrawn from the government.

The withdrawal of support on Sunday, however, did not have any impact on the BJP-led government, as the saffron party enjoys absolute majority with its 32 MLAs in the 60-member House. The Naga People’s Front and the JD(U) are also in the ruling coalition.

"CM Biren Singh has totally failed to bring normalcy to Manipur. That is the main reason for our national president (Meghalaya CM Conrad Sangma) to withdraw support for it. In case Biren is replaced, there is a possibility that a new government might take the steps required to restore normalcy. The NPP may reconsider its position at that time," Joykumar Singh told PTI.

He claimed that three NPP MLAs might have joined the November 18 meeting chaired by the CM because of “confusion”.

“The meeting was for NDA legislators. We have withdrawn support to the Biren Singh-led government but we are still NDA partners. However, we have cautioned our MLAs that attending such meetings without prior approval from the state or national president may lead to disciplinary actions," the NPP vice-president said.

Asked about media reports on notices sent to the NDA MLAs who were absent at the November 18 meeting, he said he did not think anything like that was sent to NPP legislators.

“Three NPP MLAs were present at the meeting while four were not. We are not aware of any notifications sent by Biren Singh. He might have sent notices to the BJP MLAs but that is their internal matter. He has no mandate to send notices to NPP MLAs," Joykumar Singh said.

On the Centre's decision to deploy an additional 50 companies of Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) in the state because of escalated violence, he said, "My assessment is no further deployment of security forces is required. The state is already over-saturated with security forces and it is a question of how to utilise them effectively."

Joykumar Singh, a former director general of police in Manipur, said that it appears from the current state of affairs that the additional companies of CAPF have been sent to protect the residences of MLAs and ministers.

Protestors recently attacked the residences of several ministers and legislators in Manipur.

Manipur has seen a fresh wave of protests after six people – three Meitei women and three children - went missing from a camp for displaced persons in Jiribam last week, following a gunfight between armed men and security forces that resulted in the deaths of 10 Kuki youths.

More than 220 people have been killed and thousands rendered homeless in ethnic violence between Imphal Valley-based Meiteis and adjoining hills-based Kuki-Zo groups since May last year.