Hours after Congress president Rahul Gandhi tweeted on Friday’s lynching incident at Alwar in Rajasthan, the government said a high-level committee, headed by Union Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba, had been constituted to check cases of “mob lynching.” The committee will submit its recommendations within four weeks, the government said.
The government said a Group of Ministers (GoM), headed by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh will consider the report of the committee and submit its recommendations to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Last week, a dairy farmer, Rakbar Khan from Haryana’s Mewat district, was lynched by a group of seven persons in Alwar when he was transporting two cows and their calves.
A Home Ministry official said the Centre had sought a report from the Rajasthan government on the incident.
“The government is concerned at the incidents of violence by mobs in some parts of the country. The government has already condemned such incidents, has made its stand clear in Parliament that it is committed to upholding the rule of law and adopting effective measures to curb such incidents,” a statement by the Home Ministry said.
Onus on States
The statement reiterated that, as per the Constitution, ‘Police‘ and ‘Public Order’ are State subjects and State governments are responsible for controlling crime, maintaining law and order and protecting the life and property of the citizens. It informed the Rajya Sabha last week that the National Crime Records Bureau does not maintain specific data related with respect to lynching incidents in the country.
The Ministry said it has issued advisories from time to time to States and Union Territories for maintenance of public order and prevention of crime in their areas of jurisdiction. “An advisory on addressing the issue of mob lynching on suspicion of child-lifting was issued on July 4. Earlier, an advisory was issued on August 9, 2016 on disturbances by miscreants in the name of protection of cow,” the statement said.
On July 17, the Supreme Court condemned the recent spate of lynchings as “horrendous acts of mobocracy” and told Parliament to make lynching a separate offence.
Describing lynchings and mob violence as “creeping threats”, the court warned that the rising wave of frenzied mobs — fed by fake news, self-professed morality and false stories — would consume the country like a “typhoon-like monster.”
“Government respects the recent directions of the Supreme Court on the issue of mob violence, and has issued an advisory to State Governments urging them to take effective measures to prevent incidents of mob violence and lynching and to take stringent action as per law.
The State Governments have been advised to implement the directions issued in the matter by the Supreme Court on July 17,” the Home Ministry statement said.
Apart from Mr Gauba, secretaries of the Department of Justice, Department of Legal Affairs and Social Justice and Empowerment are members of the committee.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thawar Chand Gehlot constitute the members of the GoM.
