Mob justice points to a law-and-order crisis

The Greek philosopher Diogenes had called a mob the “mother of tyrants” — an expression that sums up the murderous intent of a bunch of people bent on dispensing instant justice. In India, this tyranny is increasingly rearing its ugly head, signifying a virtual collapse of law and order. A mob seeks refuge in numbers, which makes it easy for even a small collective to get away with the horrific crime of lynching.

The recent spurt in hate crimes can be traced to that sense of immunity from the law. What’s equally appalling is a civilised society’s indifference to a growing mob rule. How else does one explain the murder of a teenager in a train compartment packed with passengers? His two brothers and another fellow traveller suffered stab wounds, too. Sadly, no one in their vicinity found it worthwhile to intervene even when lives were at stake.

In other instances, angry crowds found it convenient to beat people to death on the grounds of mere suspicion that they were child-lifters or smuggling cows to slaughterhouses. On some of these occasions even the police were present, but they chose not to act. If law-breakers continue to enjoy such patronage, a time will soon come when people would turn to vigilantes instead of the police and the courts for redressal. The dystopian future of a society bereft of reason and dominated by passion is hauntingly close unless the rule of law assumes primacy. The core values of humanity are at stake now.