Distorted sense of delivering justice : Growing trend of mobocracy
- Sangai Express Editorial :: July 24, 2013 -

In the land of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act and insurgency, mobocracy seems to have come to rule the roost.

To set the record straight, this is not an academic exercise to understand or study the mob psyche but taking a look at a trend, a growing trend, which is both disturbing and frightening.

Broadly mobocracy or the rule of the mob may be seen or understood at two levels.

One is the erosion of faith and confidence in the institutions which are there to deliver justice and the other is the deeply entrenched mindset of a people which has become immune to violence and thus blind to logical reasoning.

These two premises rest on a distorted understanding of justice. The seeds for such a mindset may be said to have been sown by the prevailing situation here, a stark reality.

When uniformed personnel under the immunity granted by an Act like AFSPA can open fire on anyone, even to the extent of causing death on mere suspicion, when the men in Khakis are extended the political patronage and protection to selectively pick up their targets and eliminate them in staged encounters, then the first seeds of distorting the understanding and meaning of justice may be said to have been sown.

On the other hand, when the non-State actors, the armed cadres of any underground organisations assume the role of policemen, judges and executioners, then it is sure to have a trickle down effect, especially on the civil society organisations, which then go on to don the mantle of moral policemen.

This is most visibly manifested in the numerous incidents of vigilantes raiding seedy road side restaurants and parading the young girls and boys in full public view, all in the name of guarding the morality of society.

Add the fact that till date the Government or its agencies have not fittingly penalised anyone for instigating a mob or for taking part in demolishing or torching the houses of any accused in a crime like rape and a fertile ground for mobocracy to come to the forefront may just have been prepared.

No man can be punished twice or thrice for a crime committed. This is the universal understanding of dispensing justice.

And certainly burning down the houses or demolishing their dwelling places with the addition of the whole family being expelled from their locality because one of their kins are involved in a crime does not come anywhere near justice.

The latest example that comes to mind is the mob taking over and going on the rampage and in the process reducing the houses and properties of the accused in the murder case of Satyabhama.

Given the situation and the growing trend of mob culture in the State, this was something which should have been anticipated. But there was not a single sign to show that the State police had geared themselves up to face any eventuality.

In addressing the growing culture of mobs taking the law into its hands, all the factors that have been spelt out, though not exhaustive, should be studied.

Perhaps, it would not be a bad idea at all for some research scholars to conduct an indepth study and try to locate where the lacuna lies.

Mob dispensing 'justice' has nothing to do with showing empathy with the sufferings of the victims and their family members. Rather it is a reflection of the gradual degradation of not only society but Government institutions.

When society sinks to the level, where it comes to believe that mobs have every right to take the law into their hands in the belief that they are dispensing justice, then proportionately it also reflects the erosion of faith and confidence in the formal institutions which are there to dispense justice.