Around 15 mob attacks and 17 deaths in their aftermath were reported in the country since 2014. Seven such incidents in Kerala were not included because the media did not find the deaths of migrant labourers befitting coverage.
The session on ‘Mob politics and the future of democracy’ held as part of the Kerala Literature Festival in Kozhikode on Friday underlined the universal nature of mob attacks even as focusing on how they had been different recently.
“Every political party uses the mob for political gain. But the way the mob went on a rampage recently is new for Kerala. The Sangh Parivar has unleashed the mob on us, either due to fear of failure or due to orders from the Centre, or is it just that we get to see them more through the media?” asked writer Paul Zacharia. He said the CPI(M) or the Congress accusing the BJP of using the mob was like “the pot calling the kettle black”.
Journalist B.R.P. Bhaskar felt that mob attacks did not start in 2014 but started getting administrative backing since then as the government never took interest in convicting the attackers and instead tried to implicate the victims. The speakers vehemently criticised the media for the way it handled issues, especially mob attacks. “The media is not loyal to the people of Kerala, just like political parties. They are just profit-driven,” Zacharia said. Writer N.S. Madhavan flayed the media for giving visibility to the faceless attackers, while journalist Kamalram Sajeev alleged that 90% of Malayalam media were implementing the Sangh Parivar agenda unknowingly.
“The way the media handles it converts every minor issue into a political issue,” Mr. Bhaskar said. While criticising the Left wing for making slogans with the word ‘renaissance’, he said renaissance should reflect in actions and not in slogans and sounded optimistic that the people of Kerala still held some renaissance values close to their heart.
