It was sheer luck of the man who was beaten up by a mob in Chandranagar area in the capital on Tuesday under mere suspicion of being a child lifter not to have been lynched. Timely intervention of police saved the person’s life and it would have been a major embarrassment for the state had it been so. The culture of taking law into one’s own hands and punishing ‘culprits’ was not there in the state before and it will be most unfortunate if this practice, widely observed in various other parts of the country becomes the order of the day.

So far from the news gathered about the incident and from the medical examination that was conducted, it can be concluded that the man was genuinely mentally unstable with hardly any ability to communicate properly and there is no question of him committing a methodical crime like child lifting. However, the irate mob came to the conclusion on the spot that he had such intention and inflicted the brutality that once marked the character of society during the Middle Ages. This is deeply condemnable and a reminder to the people of the state that before the culture of lynching spreads, it’s time to raise the voice. It’s true that a series of heavyweight crimes, particularly against women and children have taken place in the state in recent months and there is a brewing anger amongst people for this which has inclined them to be self-proclaimed justice givers. This can’t be a cause of justification of the act however as it should be kept in mind that police in all these cases have been able to book the culprits and their trials are going on as per provisions of law. Looking over what’s happening across the country, it’s disturbing to notice how the tendency of committing hate crimes, irrespective of their nature and the composition of those being the victims has silently invaded people’s mindset. There are scores of such barbaric acts and the videos of them going viral on social media are quite frequent. To the outside world, India over the very recent years have earned the disrepute of being the ‘Lynchistan’ and while most of the victims have died, for those who survived it’s living the life of a near-paralyzed. While there is hardly any need to throw light on the champions of such misdeeds, there it certainly a grave necessity to denounce the tendency itself.

Society in Arunachal Pradesh has always retained its accommodating and humane character and the Chandranagar incident is a direct attack on it. Law mustn’t be taken into one’s own hand and the outrageous propensity must be nipped in the bud. 

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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