Campaign launched against mob-lynching -Governance Now

Campaign launched against mob-lynching

We will be on the streets of Gujarat if there is no action by July 11 – which marks the anniversary of the Una movement, said Dalit leader Jignesh Mewani

Pranita Kulkarni | June 5, 2017 | New Delhi

#Tehseen Poonawalla #Jignesh Mewani #Shehla Rashid #Kanhaiya Kumar #law #Mob lynching #Gujarat

A group of activists on Monday launched a national campaign against mob-lynching and demanded a new law to curb it.

The panel comprised JNU student leaders Kanhaiya Kumar, Shehla Rashid, and activists Jignesh Mewani and Tehseen Poonawalla.

Rashid alleged that the mob-lynching has become the order of the day, and suggested a few people to be a part of a committee, which can work on the draft of the anti mob-lynching law.

Poonawalla, who had petitioned the apex court regarding ban on the vigilante groups, said, “The need of our times is a specific law to deal with vigilantism. The government must make lynching a non-bailable offence with punishment up to life imprisonment. The local police officer, in whose jurisdiction lynching took place, must be suspended immediately and a judicial inquiry must be initiated against the officer.”

He also alleged that the incidents like the one in Dadri cannot take place without police complicity. “If the government fails to enact the law in the stipulated period, we’ll lead farmers, cattle grazers and dairy farmers to the PM’s house and will leave the cattle there.”

Dalit leader Jignesh Mewani, who had led the Una Dalit uprising last year, said, “We will be on the streets of Gujarat if there is no action in this front till July 11 – which marks anniversary of the Una movement. The shocking flogging of Una victims, brutal murder of Pehlu Khan, the devastating account of Latehar – these are more than a wake-up call to demand a special law to deal with mob-lynching.”

Kumar expressed concern that the country might be moving to bheed-tantra (mobocracy) from loktantra (democracy).

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