LIBERALS AND 'MOB-LYNCHING'

Liberals and ‘mob lynching’

First and foremost, let me clarify upfront that any kind of violence, whether perpetrated on an individual or community, is highly condemnable and that the perpetrators should be punished. Having said that, I would like to make a statement here on how the so-called liberals (who are so active on social media) are ‘angry’, ‘shocked’ and ‘in fear’ that the country is being taken over by ‘mob lynchers’ are just running a very ‘clever and negative campaign’.   

I am not denying the fact that individuals are not been attacked by groups. It is made out that this ‘trend’ is new. It is not. Individuals have earlier been attacked for various reasons by various groups/communities, whether majoritarian or otherwise, but it is only now that the ‘victim’ has found a handle by which he or she gets ‘media attention’, sympathy and maybe even money. And it is made out in the media that it is the minority or the dalit who is at the receiving end who has been attacked for not having ‘chanted’ what the mob wanted him or her to chant. I feel that it is a very specious excuse to attack a person. The so-called liberals may say that is precisely the point that specious reasons people attacked. This certainly is not true.

The so-called liberals who, I must categorically state here, have taken a pre-determined stand on the present dispensation and attribute anything and everything that is happening at the local level, to the fact that we have such and such a government at the centre. These ‘liberals’ who get invited to give lectures abroad (that is one major qualification to get invited overseas for lectures – talk how ‘human rights’ is getting trampled upon by the government at the centre) have been running a campaign of ‘negativity’. Suddenly, we have so many cases of ‘mob-lynching’ which like I said earlier would have been a case of a local fight.

Why have the liberals caught on to the phrase ‘mob lynching’. It is not difficult to understand their psychology.  Unlike in a communal riot where communities get polarised and there is sense of déjà vu, here the person who has supposedly got ‘lynched’ is getting all the attention and sympathy – why because the liberals portray him or her as a helpless and hapless person been attacked by the majority.  So what the liberals are working on is to capitalise on ‘mob lynching’ as they are getting substantial traction in the western media and elsewhere and slowly move away from campaigning against ‘communal riots’ as they are not getting the traction they look for. In ‘mob lynching’ they have found a cause – human rights, yes fundamental human rights which they say is in danger, even while they are happily speaking about it (if it was in danger, would they be even whispering about it).   

The other day, just before the Lok Sabha elections, my former driver was attacked by half a dozen persons near his house. He had severe head injuries. I do not know who sparked the fight. The attackers belonged to one particular community. The driver went to the police station to file a complaint and the cops shooed him away stating that they were busy with the elections and two  that it would lead to communal tensions, if they rounded up the perpetrators. This was a case of ‘mob lynching’ but then the liberals consider it as ‘mob lynching’ only when the victims belong to a minority community. The liberals thrive on attacking a government which the people have given an absolute mandate and they do not consider that as a mandate, there cannot be greater hypocrisy or opportunism than this kind of thinking.