Stopping cow vigilantism: Enough with the rhetoric, we need hate crime laws to deal with these crimes

The #NotInMyName demonstrations across the country were heartening and it seems pretty clear that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was well-advised to come out in the open immediately after with a statement condemning cow vigilantism. While those not in his party and a large number of citizens might feel his words were far too gentle to have any impact on the self-appointed gau rakshaks (cow vigilantes) and almost sounded conciliatory, at least he has started the ball rolling which is better than a deafening silence. Truth be told, there is no point shovelling Gandhian words at people if there is no legal back up to discourage this horrific new dimension in India. Modi can only preach to the choir. The vast majority of Indians agree its wrong. That’s why they were out there in force. The trick lies in dismantling the gangs and those who are instigating these attacks. [caption id=“attachment_3760967” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] We also seem to have forgotten that these killers on the loose also target Dalits and those who either get rid of bovine carcasses or are in the profession of skinning dead animals. The act of merely transporting a carcass can have you killed or at best thrashed within an inch of your life. This real-life interactive love for violence in this era is intoxicating and easily attracts participation. People who would not dream of murder join in or stand by and let the atrocity flourish. Whether we wish to accept it or not, that miasma of fear hangs heavy and there is this sense of dread that one can become a victim of righteous rage at any time by just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The spontaneous response to the protests by thousands also has an intrinsic danger in it. By having no legislation or follow up, such gatherings mislead us into feeling good about ourselves and the ‘action’ we have taken. We pat each other on the back in mutual congratulations for a job well done and go home. A slice of media publicity and that is that. We convince ourselves we have done our bit and showed them. Showed what and to whom? The gau rakshak hoods are not in the least affected and are laughing all the way to the cowshed. If you closely trace the week’s developments following the killing of the 16-year-old Junaid Khan on the train to Mathura until today, you will notice that not many leading political luminaries, including Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, have actually said anything even remotely threatening to the kill squads. That these coldblooded butchers are unfazed can be seen in the barbaric way a 45-year-old Muslim was killed in Ramgarh, Jharkand, a day after the #NotInMyName parades, by a 100-strong-mob that felt it was justified in finishing him off for ostensibly selling beef. So where does all this leave us as far as the issue of human life is concerned? Unless we jumpstart our ‘hate crimes’ judicial section, which for all practical purposes does not exist in the country, all this is going to make for a very poor defence against anyone wishing to use the cow card to go on a bloodletting spree, seek revenge or simply impose his or her caste ‘superiority’ on another. We have 17 laws for discrimination but ‘hate crimes’ per se is not a category. Modi and his frontline would do well to create a legal institution for fast-tracking cases of those suspected of hate crimes and generate some traction for saving innocent people from instant death by default. The law ministry has been toying with the concept of creating new laws on hate crimes but nothing definite has been enacted yet. Even Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson Gopal has responded to the speech by saying that unless the prime minister’s statements are followed up by very strong action and they are prosecuted, all this is mere fluff. There now exists that awkward and uneasy feeling that between the demonstrations and the unapologetic ‘naughty naughty’ lukewarm sermon, much more of these 63 acts of cow-related violence since 2014 are going to occur ‘in our name’.