Mob violence

— The violence that rocked parts of Punjab a couple of days ago gives us twin insights into the contemporary social scenario. First, the world has become a global village in more senses than one, and events happening far away across one half of the globe might have disastrous repercussions in the other half. The attack on two leaders of the Dera Sach Khand, a religious sect within the Sikh community with a large Dalit following, which has its headquarters in Jalandhar, had taken place in distant Vienna. Reportedly, the two leaders had gone there to preach among the 3000 strong Sikh community residing in the Austrian capital and were attacked while they were preaching at a Gurdwara there. In the attack Sant Ramanand, the second commander of the Dera Sach Khand Sect, was killed, while Sant Niranjan Dass, the chief of the sect, along with a number of other devotees, were wounded. Witnesses to the shooting alleged that the attackers were Sikhs from a higher caste who accused the preachers of being a divisive influence on the community. With the electronic media instantly picking up the news, there were immediate repercussions in Punjab. Within hours of the Vienna incident mobs were on the rampage in Jallandhar, Hoshiarpur, Phagwara and other places, burning trains and stoning buses, forcing the police to resort to numerous firings.

Though the situation. which had escalated to Haryana, appears to have been brought under control through imposition of curfew and calling in of the Armed forces, three lives had been lost, crores worth of public property destroyed and thousands of people left stranded due to closure of highways and rail services. This provides us with an insight into another aspect of the contemporary scenario, the growing propensity of mobs to take law into their own hands. This is particularly true in urban areas, where the stress of living brings out the beast in men, and makes them indulge in senseless violence at provocations mild or grave. Even a minor traffic accident can result in the formation of a mob dispensing instance justice, without there being a jury or a trial! The scenes witnessed in Ganeshguri after the serial bomb blasts, of a mob venting its fury on an ambulance. were no different from the ghastly sight of a burning train in Punjab. Such mobs are immune to the logic that by destroying public property they are actually harming themselves or, in fact, any other mode of persuasion, which in turn enables the law enforcing agencies resort to equally violent repression. It is this vicious cycle that has become too frequent in India to be ignored by those responsible for running the country. That the faith of the public in law enforcement agencies is no longer as strong as before is another impetus to mob violence, so perhaps a start could be made in that aspect! ASSAM TRIBUNE