Mobocracy : Against humanity :: Shame on Manipur
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: September 15 2018 -
Mobocracy. This goes against humanity and all that Manipur stands for but increasingly it has become clear that the mob mentality has taken hold of quite a large number of people and this is what is really disturbing.
What happened in the wee hours of September 13 at Tharoijam Awang Leikai under Patsoi police station should not be seen in isolation but in connection with all that has been happening in Manipur down the years.
Anyone it seems can start a mob frenzy and at times it is more than clear that such a trend can also be carefully thought out with the participants coming fully prepared for a show down.
This is best exemplified when mobs or rather crowds gather and attempt to attack a rape accused when he is brought to the Court for the trial.
There are examples galore to cite here, but it will not serve the intended purpose by taking any one specific example.
Ironic it is but in many cases, mob frenzies have also been ignited under some high sounding cause championed by many self appointed sons and daughters of the soil.
The young man lynched at Tharoijam Awang Leikai was a suspect, a suspect of trying to steal a two wheeler vehicle from the locality and in as much as vehicle lifters are abhorred it is not the right of anyone to beat the suspect to death.
Yet this is what happened at Tharoijam Awang Leikai.
Apart from the pain and grief of the family members of the late youth, it is also a damning statement on the mentality of the people here and there is nothing to crow about this.
Sick mentality. Apart from this, it may also be said that the mob mentality is borne out of a lack of belief and confidence in the justice delivery system.
Or lack of faith in the police and so instead of handing over a suspect, the mob takes over and then delivers what it deems is justice-beat the suspect to death.
This was what happened at Tharoijam Awang Leikai on September 13.
Mob mentality.
What makes the Tharoijam Awang Leikai incident all that more abhorrent is the point that the ‘mob justice’ was found uploaded on social media site Facebook.
What is the rational of uploading the mob frenzy on a social media site is the natural question that follows.
Is it a case of some people drawing a sense of satisfaction that a ’vehicle lifter’ has been done to death ?
The brutality of the mob can be discerned from the manner in which the suspect was repeatedly beaten even when he was lying unconscious on the ground.
Mob justice is a misnomer, for there is nothing remotely connected to justice when a group of unruly people gather and decide to take the law into their own hands and kill a suspect on the mere suspicion that he is a thief.
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