Mob Lynching Is Not Acceptable Anywhere And For Whatever Reason
By A Special Correspondent
First publised on 2021-12-24 07:21:39
About the Author
A man was caught and beaten to death after he committed sacrilege by entering the sanctum sanctorum at the Golden temple and trying to remove/mishandle Sikh religious symbols. The very next day, another man was lynched, allegedly for a similar act, in Kapurthala. Is this right?
There can be no justification for either the temple authorities or the devotees present at the time to beat any offender to death. The law must be respected at all times. If the person is guilty of sacrilege, he must be caught and handed over to the police. Mob lynching is unacceptable if it is done by cow vigilantes or Dalit bashers and it is equally unacceptable when done by temple authorities and devotes at the Golden Temple.
The Kapurthala case showed how a single case of sacrilege-related lynching is enough to inflame passions all over the state. Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi has confirmed that there is no evidence of sacrilege (or removing the nishan, as alleged) in the Kapurthala case and the FIR will be amended. So the crowd lynched the man only on suspicion of sacrilege! (As per latest news reports, the Punjab Police have arrested the caretaker of the Kapurthala gurudwara, Amarjit Singh, for falsely raising the bogey of sacrilege and has booked 100 unidentified persons for the lynching).
This is what happens when one such case happens. Since there was an intrusion at the Golden Temple and the intruder did try (by all accounts) to touch and remove things he had no business touching or removing and the man was beaten to death, anyone found near revered symbols in gurudwaras is bound to be treated with suspicion and the crowd can, and in all probability will, beat them to death.
This has to stop. The rule of law must prevail. All those who participated in the revenge act at the Golden Temple must be identified and punished as per law. It is definitely sacrilege to play around with religious symbols. But it is also sacrilege to take the law in one's hand and kill a man for doing that. It is regretful that no case has been filed even after 72 hours and the accused are yet to be identified.
The worst thing is that with the accused dead, there is no way to find out if there was bigger conspiracy, as alleged, behind the act. Was the man working alone or was he part of a gang that wanted to foment trouble? If so, who are behind it? All these questions will remain unanswered.
