Political Diary
New
Delhi, 10 July 2018
Murderous Mob
SOCIAL
MEDIA ‘KILLS’
By Poonam I Kaushish
Social
media ‘kills’ and how! Mob lynching is back on the political-social scene with
17 cases across 9 States from Assam to Tamil Nadu including Maharashtra,
Karnataka, Tripura, Andhra Telangana, Gujarat and West Bengal leaving 27 innocent
bystanders murdered by a frenzied crowd blinded by viral rumours of
child-kidnappers or organ harvesters on the prowl. With gossip
wining over fact along-with the mob moving faster than the police, predictably
a clueless officialdom grappling with ways to control the rising violence is fast losing out to this growing technology-driven serial
killer!
Interestingly, the
latest black spot was the lynching of five in Maharashtra’s Dhule district
which underscored villagers inflamed by fake
warnings of child-trafficking rings on
WhatsApp resorted to vigilante justice
beating to death innocent unknown people who were merely passing
through.
Worse,
States which had hired
“rumour busters,” to travel from village to village equipped with loudspeakers,
warning of the dangers of fake news in their
endeavour to control violence, were lynched
too.
Resulting in an anguished Supreme Court terming lynching, “a
crime unacceptable in a civilised society and no one could take law into their
hands” , it put the onus on States for failing to check incidents. Adding, they
need to frame guidelines to prevent such occurrences and pay compensation. The
Court was hearing pleas seeking directions to formulate guidelines to curb cow
vigilantism.
Thereby, exposing how
ineffective local intelligence is in alerting the police about tensions or an
impending attack, their slow response, ill-preparedness vis-à-vis arms and personnel and low impact of their awareness
measures. Killing, yet another signpost of an increasingly enfeebled system,
symptomatic of the complete lawlessness that has gripped the country.
A new cult
establishing an order of hatred and rage. Of an eerie stillness filling the
senses with the smell of death, mayhem and brutal carnage held hostage by
rampant goondagardi wherein we
continue to remain captive to errant elements of society. Think. The lynchings could have been
prevented, if timely intervention had been made.
True, mob mayhem is not new and happening with State
approval wherein the ruling political class uses it as one of its political
instruments – sometimes as a direct tool to influence their constituency to
garner political benefits and sometimes conveniently ignores to protect their
support base for keeping political power intact.
Recall, in the last three years all hell broke loose in
Dadri, UP, when a Muslim was lynched to death post a rumour that his family had
eaten and stored beef in their refrigerator. Then came Una Gujarat where four Dalits
were killed by gau rakshaks for
skinning a cow, dairy farmer Pehlu Khan in Alwar for smuggling cows and young Juniad
in Faridabad, Haryana over a communal slur. Leading to an endless spiral of
vicious verbal bashing and counter-wallops on cow slaughter and beef eating.
Raising a moot point:
Do we still have rule of law? Why are we so blasé’ about mob violence? Why do
hooligans always get the better of us? When did we become a morally corrupt
society that does such things? Were we always like this or is this something
new? If yesterday, people were killed by
cow vigilantes and beef ban, today we are lynching a person on hearsay, tomorrow,
society might demand that we carry our identity papers always. What next?
Unfortunately,
with over one billion active mobile phone connections and WhatsApp having more
than 200 million users in the country, the Government seems at a loss on how to
quell the violence triggered by news fake or real and hearsay, whereby local
authorities are left to tackle these as best they can, issuing warnings and
employing low-tech methods such as hiring street performers to visit villages
to spread public awareness.
It’s simply not
enough for the Government to assert we are doing are best, really? Besides, it has found a scapegoat in WhatsApp asking it to “immediately contain the spread of such messages through
the application of appropriate technology.” Thereby, highlighting its misguided approach and lack of understanding of how
modern messaging tools works.
Alongside, the
Government has failed to adequately address the larger issues at play which are
to blame for these horrific killings. Mob killings are a law and order problem
but the root cause of this are three-fold: One, caste and creed identity. Two, no act of mob violence is punished in
court. Even where the State is present, it is unable or unwilling to
challenge the mob. Three, law enforcers become participants in the
violence as the rule of law is weak. Example, mob violence to impose beef ban.
Paradoxically, as the
2019 general election looms and WhatsApp expands its outreach Parties are
signing up thousands of “WhatsApp warriors” — who, in some cases, are spreading
incendiary content themselves. But simultaneously, the Government and Parties
need to launch a campaign to encourage people to question the veracity of
information they receive via social media and messaging platforms.
Additionally, police
forces need to identify vulnerable areas, initiate
effective measures, be better equipped to respond to crimes connected to
the spread of misinformation and need to engage more deeply with communities for creating awareness, earn their trust, prevent
vigilantism and mob riots and address citizens’ fears about issues like
kidnappers on the loose.
In blaming WhatsApp
for this lynching spree, it’s clear that the Government is trying to shirk its
responsibilities towards its citizens. It’s also missing a key opportunity to
connect with people and better understand the growing problem of
misinformation, and how it could be tackled at the local and national level.
Hopefully, it’ll look
for innovative ways to use technology or collaborate with tech firms to reach
its people and counter the effects of virally spread lies. Now if only the Government
can find the will to step up to this challenge.
As it
stands, Governments around the world are considering laws and controls against
fake news in the wake of Russian interference in the 2016 US Presidential
election and the rise of hate speech. Such reactions have raised free-speech
concerns. But the spread of fake news has been particularly pernicious in
India, where legions of new, inexperienced smartphone users send billions of
messages a day on its largest market.
On its part, WhatsApp
has introduced a function that allows administrators
of groups to control which members can post messages, and the company is
testing a plan to label which messages are forwards. Time alone will tell if
this is able to quell rumour mongering and lynching.
Clearly, lynching
marks a dangerous political trend of mob violence, if this trend goes unchecked
society will get dangerously fragmented. Thus, the recent incidents make it
imperative that we rethink how we want to shape New India. Mob lynching should
have no place in society.
The time has come for
the Government to tackle larger issues which are making people paranoid and
vulnerable to the viral spread of lies. It needs to guard against the lynching
menace else the day is not far when the mob could well mean just Indian society.
Nothing justifies violence or the call to commit violence in direct
contravention of the law.
The way forward is to
desist from fake news and acerbic speeches. Hate crimes don’t pay. Time now to
invest in citizens and India and undergo a DNA test! --- INFA
(Copyright,
India News & Feature Alliance)
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