‘May bring new law, if needed’

NEW DELHI : Union home minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday said the central government might bring a law, if necessary, to stop incidents of mob lynching across the country.

“After deliberations, we will take a decision as to what needs to be done to take strong action against the incidents of lynchings.

We will also bring a law if that is required,” Singh said, adding such incidents have been happening for the past many years.

Singh was responding to the Opposition’s outcry in the Lok Sabha following the latest in a series of incidents of mob lynching in recent past, in which a Muslim man was killed in Rajasthan’s Alwar district over claims that he was smuggling two cows to his native place in Haryana.

Victim Rakbar Khan’s family has said they are milk traders.

During the debate on the issue of lynchings in the Lok Sabha, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge demanded that a sitting Supreme Court judge conduct the inquiry into such incidents and take action.

Trinamool Congress leader Sudip Bandopadhyay said mob lynchings were creating an alarming situation in the country. AIADMK leader M Thambidurai urged the Centre to come forward and stop such incidents.

“Why is this happening? What is intelligence (agencies) doing?... What is the role of the Centre?” the deputy speaker asked.

CPI(M) member Mohammed Salim said a trend of mob justice on the streets is increasing based on rumours, cow protection or child-lifting and that this was being done to spread hatred.

“Such incidents of hatred are spreading across the country and it is very dangerous.

It is not just a Hindu-Muslim issue or a matter of cow protection, even Swami Agnivesh was attacked,” he said.

Responding to Opposition’s criticism, the home minister said that incidents of lynching “have been happening for years” and reiterated the biggest incident of lynching took place in 1984 when thousands of Sikhs were killed.

The matter was also raised in the Rajya Sabha. TMC MP Shanta Chhetri demanded to know what steps are being taken by the Centre to come up with any law.

Citing media reports, the MP said, “So far 88 lives have been lost since the present government came to power.”

She said the Supreme Court had last week asked for a law banning mob lynching, and wanted the government to clarify steps being taken to stop such attacks.