Is This India's Future?

India fights a shockingly violent war within, as citizens stain their hands with the blood of fellow citizens. A challenge the NDA government must confront

- Damayanti Datta And Kaushik Deka

They were no soldiers executed in war, civilians butchered by deadly terror groups, or rebels crushed by state power. They were ‘we’, the people of the world’s largest democracy, who were hunted, beaten and tortured to death by vengeful, blood thirsty crowds. Bodies desecr­ated, they died in extreme fear and pain, pleading innocence and begging for mercy. All for a word the Indian Penal Code (IPC) does not even recognise: ‘lynching’.

Narratives of heart­wrenching horror have gripped the nation, as Indians kill Indians in some of the most grotesque mob violence ever recorded, in total disregard for the law. Horrific images, reports and video clips of people being tortured or dying terrible deaths are surfacing every week: from Latehar to Srinagar, Ballabhgarh to Ramgarh, Bathinda to Alwar. Yet our leaders remain silent. Will Prime Minister Narendra Modi do anything to stop this madness?

A PARANOID STATE

Aligarh railway station, a major stop along the Delhi­ Kolkata route, was a scene of bedlam on July 1. On high alert ever since a call a month ago threatened to blow up the place, the railway police stopped a woman in burqa, for ‘suspicious’ behaviour. The surprise was total when Nazmul Hasan, 42, emerged from under the veil. An engineer, Hasan confessed to using the garb as a ruse. The lynching of a Muslim boy on a train near Ballabhgarh on June 22, had put the fear of lynching in his heart. He too had faced abuse on a train recently. “I thought no one would target a woman.”