Not another Muzaffarnagar, please
- Hindustan Times
- Updated: Jun 07, 2016 20:00 IST
Defying the prohibitory orders imposed by the district
administration, residents of Bisada (Dadri) and other neighbouring
villages holding a mahapanchayat in the village
(Hindustan Times)
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Several things stand out here. Those holding the mahapanchayat did not have any comment to make on the murder. Obviously they believe in some kind of mob justice and that people can take the law into their own hands when they perceive some wrongdoing has taken place. Far be it from those holding the mahapanchayat to even imagine that no person can be deprived of his life or liberty except in accordance with the process laid down by law. A similar atmosphere was sought to be created when rationalists such as Govind Pansare had been killed. Some people, mostly of sangh parivar persuasion, had justified the killings and it had been bandied about that the rationalist thinkers had been done in by their own follies. In the Dadri case, if the Ikhlaq family had been suspected of any wrongdoing, the correct thing for those whose sensitivities were hurt would have been to report the matter to the police. Instead of doing that, they are asking the police to do what they feel should be done.
Read: Ghaziabad: BJP attacks SP govt over Mathura clash
The UP government must act immediately. Already it has had to face a lot of flak over the Mathura incident, where the local administration could not foresee that a sect comprising squatters could take to violence in the manner it did. Now it should enforce prohibitory orders more firmly in Dadri, particularly so after they were violated by the panchayat, and see to it that no violence takes place.