Post-poll mob lynching spree, bulldozer justice: NAPM seeks united resistance

Counterview Desk 
Condemning what it calls "the horrific spree of mob lynchings across the country after the Lok Sabha election results", India's premier civil society network, National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM), has called for "united resistance" against "hateful communal politics, mob lynching of religious minorities and caste-based oppression".
Seeking withdrawal FIR filed against journalists for reporting cases of mob lynchings, it said, "We demand a fair investigation, stringent and prompt action against the perpetrators in all these cases as well as complete support, safety and compensation to the aggrieved families."

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National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM), strongly condemns the horrific spree of mob lynchings of minorities across the country after declaration of the Lok Sabha election results on 4th June. We demand a fair investigation, stringent and prompt action against the perpetrators in all these cases as well as complete support, safety and compensation to the aggrieved families. We also call for withdrawal of FIR filed against UP-based journalists for merely reporting cases of mob lynchings. While the BJP Govt has received a weakened mandated in the elections, the social poison of communal hatred remains a challenge, which we need to unitedly resist.
Over the past month and a half, there have been reports of more than 13 cases of mob lynching across different states, such as Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand. We wish to point out and condemn the complicity of state administration and the police, in safeguarding the perpetrators and targeting religious minorities and caste-oppressed people in the incidents of mob lynching. We are also appalled that instead of taking swift action against mob lynching, the Uttar Pradesh Govt. chose to crackdown on journalists Zakir Ali Tyagi, Wasim Akram Tyagi, Asif Rana, Saif Allahabadi and Ahmed Raza Khan and filed FIRs against them, for merely doing their job of reporting / sharing these incidents.
‘Mob lynchings’ have been one of the defining features of the decade-long BJP government rule at the Centre and are a direct result of the hate-fueled communal politics, on which the party relies to garner votes. In the 2024 Lok Sabha election campaign, PM Modi took hate politics one step further by directly targeting the Muslim community in his election speeches. Probably, the PM’s most hateful speech was at Banswara in Rajasthan, where he referred to members of the Muslim community as “infiltrators” and those who “produce more children”!
The BJP’s election campaign, led by the PM, saw venomous hate speeches and conspiracy theories, such as accusing the main opposition party of planning to distribute the wealth of the majority community to the minorities. Taken together, these acts amount to de-humanizing members of the minority community and create deep divides and mistrust in society. Activists, scholars and numerous civil society organizations have been warning of the dangerous consequences of such violent practices, which have also taken place in the form of ‘dharm sansads’ invoking genocidal violence towards the Muslim community.

A spree of mob lynchings after 4th June, across states:

• In Raipur (Chhattisgarh), three Muslim men, Saddam Qureshi (23), his cousin Chand Miya Khan (23) and Guddu Khan (35), were allegedly killed by a mob on 7th June, for cattle transportation.
• On 10th June, a Sikh man named Sukhwinder Singh from Haryana, Kiathal, was beaten to death by a mob on the accusation that the victim was a ‘Khalsitani’!
• On 12th June, Christian families of Jagdalpur (Chhattisgarh) were attacked by a Hindutva mob and given an ultimatum of 10 days to denounce their religion, wherein two people were severely beaten, and others were made unconscious.
• In the second week of June, 11 houses belonging to people from the Muslim community were demolished in Mandla (Madhya Pradesh), after police claimed to have found beef and skeletal remains of cattle!
• On 18th June, a Muslim man, Mohammad Farid, was beaten to death by a mob in Aligarh (UP).
• At least four people have been beaten to death and ten wounded in 12 separate incidents of mob violence in West Bengal in a week since 19th June.
• On 30th June, two men named Sonu Bishnoi and Sundar Bishnoi, transporting lemons from Jaipur to Punjab, were attacked by a Hindutva mob on the accusation of cattle smuggling.

Mob lynchings under the BJP are a systemic form of violence directed against religious minorities and caste-oppressed people, with active state support. In fact, in quite a few of these cases, the victims from socially marginalized groups are themselves accused of violence by the majoritarian state. It has been well established that these lynchings are a result of years of communal politics carried out by BJP and RSS based on the exclusion of religious minorities and caste-oppressed groups, with a strong driving force of genocidal intent towards Muslims in India.
A recent study conducted by Yale University scientists finds that the BJP gains electorally from incidents of conflict and violence taking their extreme forms through lynchings, pogroms (ex. Delhi pogrom) and other such incidents. Political scientists Gareth Nellis, Michael Weaver, and Steven Rosenzweig, in their study, state that while the ‘Hindu-Muslim riots’ are electorally costly for the Indian National Congress, these riots, in effect, strengthen ethno-religious parties like the BJP, stating that “the election of a single Congress MLA in a district brought about a 32% reduction in the probability of a riot breaking out before the next election. Simulations reveal that had Congress candidates lost all close elections in our dataset, India would have faced 10% more riots and thousands more riot casualties”.
NAPM firmly stands against communal politics, which, in effect, turns people into mobs for electoral and political gains, instead of holding the State accountable for ensuring rights and social well-being.

Complicity of state administration in rising instances of mob lynching and “bulldozer justice”:

Along with mob lynchings, the BJP government's fascist politics of “bulldozer justice” in various states has taken the shape of the selective and rampant demolition of houses belonging to members of the Muslim community.

• After the communal violence in Nuh (Haryana), which led to the death of 6 people, the state government resorted to a massive demolition drive, wherein barring the houses in Firozpur Jhirka, all the buildings demolished belonged to Muslims, many of them landless and poor workers.
• On 24th June, 2024, the Assam state government demolished numerous houses and structures, especially belonging to muslims, citing ‘encroachment’ on railway land! Multiple reports expose the bias of state administration, where it selectively demolished houses and shops belonging to Muslim people, while leaving the Hindu neighbours on the same land untouched.
• In Madhya Pradesh, the bias of the police administration was evident, as it swiftly resorted to demolition of the houses of four Muslim men, even when the petition against demolitions was pending before the High Court. Report by Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APRC) also questioned the validity of the accusation of ‘throwing meat at a temple’ by 4 Muslim men.

The complicity and active indulgence of police and administration in facilitating and/or ignoring these incidents of anti-minority mob violence have been apparent in many of these cases. The active support of the police has taken the shape of protecting perpetrators of such violence and has now resorted to accusing the victims themselves of various crimes, even by making up false cases. 

Although the lynchings after 4th June have similarities with other such instances of violence carried out by hate-mobs and Hindutva vigilante groups, there appears to be a new pattern emerging in which the victim is accused of theft / robbery, in a quest to justify or legitimize these killings. 

Opposition parties have failed to effectively condemn atrocities against the Muslim community and mob lynchings

For example, almost ten days after Mohammad Farid's death, an FIR was filed on the victim, accusing the deceased of theft and robbery. Similarly, In West Bengal, multiple incidents of mob lynching were reported from different parts of Kolkata, Bidhannagar, Jhargram and Hoogly, all based on suspicion of theft and robbery.
The arbitrary demolition of houses and shops anywhere is a criminal activity and takes away the right to a dignified life, leaving people homeless and without any livelihood. The role of the state administration under the BJP in states or at the Centre in fueling the rise of these incidents, by taking the side of perpetrators is strongly suspect and must be thoroughly investigated.

Wrongful FIRs on journalists for reporting:

While on the one hand, mainstream political parties in opposition have failed to effectively condemn atrocities against the Muslim community and mob lynchings, the BJP-ruled state and Central governments have resorted to an oppressive crackdown against journalists and civil society organizations for reporting and speaking against such violent crimes. In one such move, the Uttar Pradesh government has filed an FIR against three journalists, accusing them of ‘spreading false information and promoting enmity between two groups’ under Section 353 (2) and 196 respectively of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita. An FIR was filed against a YouTube channel named Hindustani Media under section 353 (2) based on similar fraudulent accusations. NAPM condemns the weaponization of Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita by the state and central government for silencing critics and oppressing diligent journalists.
Zakir Ali Tyagi, who has continuously reported on such hate crimes, has been attacked numerous times previously by Hindutva groups and targeted by the state government. In an interview with Quint media, he exposed how the administration weaponized the law to safeguard the perpetrators in the spree of lynchings after 4th June. The new law in BNS defines lynching as an act when "a group of five or more persons acting in concert, commit murder". Firoz's family from Aligarh was able to identify only two people from the mob, which proved to be insufficient to lodge a case of mob lynching. Zakir alleges that police played around with the technical definition to evade a fair investigation, thus providing state support to violent mobs and Hindutva vigilante groups.
In the wake of rapidly increasing cases of mob lynching and selective demolition of houses belonging to people from the Muslim community, National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) calls for united democratic resistance to state-sponsored communal politics. We re-affirm our unflinching solidarity with all victims of communal, caste violence across the country. We call upon the Central and state governments to immediately intervene to curb these violent atrocities against Muslims and other minorities. 

We demand that:

1. The concerned governments must undertake fair investigation and ensure stringent legal action in all cases of mob lynching, communal and caste-based violence.
2. Full support, safety, compensation and legal assistance must be provided to the surviving victims or family members of deceased.
3. FIR on journalists for merely doing their duty of reporting the cases of mob lynchings should be withdrawn with immediate effect.
4. Governments must ensure strict compliance with the Supreme Court’s Judgement dt. 17th July, 2018 on mob lynchings.
5. Preventive measures should be taken by all Governments in an effective way, since lynchings have been more frequent and appear to have a recurring pattern.
6. High-level monitoring of all cases of mob-lynching and communal violence ensuring fairness, must be instituted.
7. Strict action should be taken against media groups spreading hate, fueling the rise in communal tensions and the occurrence of mob lynchings.