Centre informed Parliament on Tuesday that State governments were competent to enact legislation to prevent lynching in the name of cow-vigilantism and it was the responsibility of the State to prevent such crimes.
Ministry of Home Affairs told the Lok Sabha that the “National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) does not maintain specific data with respect to lynching incidents in the country in the name of cow vigilantism and child lifting.”
Standard operating procedure
MHA said it issued an advisory to all States in 2016 “for taking prompt and strict action against miscreants who take law into their own hands in the name of protection of cow.” It also informed the Lok Sabha that it had issued “revised communal harmony guidelines laying down standard operating procedures to deal with the situations arising out of communal violence.”
They were aimed at maintaining due vigilance, careful planning and taking preparatory measures to prevent and pre-empt potential communal violence. “These guidelines are reiterated from time to time, particularly prior to various festivals, with the objective of sensitisation of States/UTs,” MHA said.
According to the MHA, as many as 822 incidents of communal violence were reported in 2017, an increase of 16.9% over the previous year. Most incidents (195) were reported in Uttar Pradesh. While the number of such incidents reported in 2014 was 644, it was 751 in 2015 and 703 in 2016. Since 2014, there had been a 27.6% increase in incidence of communal violence.
Farm suicide data
MHA also said that the NCRB had not released the 2016 report on “Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India” as several discrepancies were observed in the data relating to farmer suicides. “During scrutiny, various discrepancies were observed, including in the data relating to farmers/cultivators (some major States have not reported any suicides by farmers/cultivators). The data, therefore, needs reconciliation with the States before it is finalised. The finalisation of the Report will, therefore, take some more time,” it said.
