A moving menace: on mob violence
Mob violence in the name of cow protection is shredding civic order
The violence(हिंसा) in Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr district is yet another notice of the toll being taken on civic order on account of the failure to crack down on vigilant(सजग/ सुरक्षा व्यवस्थापक ) e mobs(भीड़/उपद्रवी ). Two persons, including a police inspector, lost their lives to bullets fired in Syana when villagers gathered(इकट्ठा) outside a police post in protests over a rumour that cow carcasses(गाय शव) had been found in the vicinity(आस-पास/पड़ोस). In a curious(जिज्ञासु/उत्सुक) coincidence(संयोग),Monday’s violence touches back to the hate crime that marked the beginning(शुरुआत) of this long spell of vigilante violence over ‘cow protection(गाय संरक्षण)’ across north India. Subodh Kumar Singh, the inspector killed in Bulandshahr, had been the first investigating(जांच करना) officer when Mohammed Akhlaq was lynched near Dadri, also in western U.P., on September 28, 2015 on a rumor(अफवाह) that he had beef in his possession(क़ब्ज़ा/अधिकार). Then as now, an equivalence(समानक/अनुरूप )was sought to be made between the crime of mob violence and murder on the one hand, and the rumoured cow slaughter on the other. Alongside those charged with the violence, who include(शामिल) members of the Bajrang Dal, an FIR has been filed against seven Muslims for alleged(कथित) cow slaughter. Investigations(जांच) should reveal(पता चलता है/प्रकट करना) whether the mob at the police post formed organically(बवाल), or whether there was a conspiracy(साजिश )’ to set up a communally(सामुदायिक रूप से) polarizing(ध्रुवीकरण/फूट डालना) confrontation(टकराव/विरोध). In the din of pledges of speedy investigation by everyone from police to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, there is no equivalent messaging that no rumour or act of cow slaughter justifies mob violence.
Ever since the BJP came to power nationally in 2014, its governments in the States have moved to tighten lawsprohibiting(रोक लगाना) cow slaughter. Attendant(सहायक/सेवक) to the legislative(विधायी) prohibition, bands of gau rakshaks, or cow-protection vigilantes, have created an atmosphere(वातावरण) of fear(डर/चिंता), purportedly(कथित रूप से) acting on suspicion of cow slaughter to round up and lynch(वध करना ) at will cattle(मवेशी/गोधन) traders and passersby alike. Probes(जांच,) into the killing(हत्या ), in most cases, move in parallel(समानांतर) with investigations into the allegations(आरोपों)of cow slaughter or the possession of beef. And in a pattern that has crystallised(स्पष्ट/व्यक्त), the hurt sentiments of gau rakshaks are played up to reinforce an equivalence between actual murderous(घातक) crime and rumoured cow slaughter (often, as in the case of Pehlu Khan in Rajasthan’s Alwar district in April 2017, just for transporting cattle). The police, picking up the political signalling or even out of fear of being outnumbered, tend to play down the gravity(गंभीरता/भार) of the crime — as in the case of a lynching(झुकाव ) in Hapur this year, initially(शुरू में) projected as an outcome of road rage. In a disturbing indication(संकेत/लक्षण) of the impunity(माफी/दण्ड मुक्ति) gau rakshaks believe they enjoy, they have captured(पकड़ना/अधिकृत करना) on camera incidents of violence, including Monday’s. Why wouldn’t they, when the state has been playing to their script.
Important Vocabulary
1. Mobs(भीड़/उपद्रवी ).
Synonyms: clan, crowd, flock, gang, horde
Antonyms: individual, single
2.Curious(जिज्ञासु/उत्सुक)
Synonyms: inquisitive, interested, analytical, disquisitive, examining
Antonyms: incurious, unconcerned, average, disinterested, indifferent
3. Captured(पकड़ना/अधिकृत करना)
Synonyms: apprehend, arrest, catch, conquer, grab
Antonyms: be immune, fail, forfeit, free, give
4. Vigilant(सजग/ सुरक्षा व्यवस्थापक
Synonyms: anxious, attentive, aware, cautious, circumspect
Antonyms: careless, heedless, ignorant, inattentive, incautious
5. Vicinity(आस-पास/पड़ोस)
Synonyms: environs, neighborhood, proximity, ballpark, district
Antonyms: faraway
6. Possession(क़ब्ज़ा/अधिकार).
Synonyms: custody, dominion, hold, occupancy, occupation
Antonyms: lack, need, want
7. Reveal(पता चलता है/प्रकट करना)
Synonyms: acknowledge, admit, affirm, announce, concede
Antonyms: conceal, contradict, deny, disavow, dispute
8. Investigations(जांच)
Synonyms: analysis, case, examination, hearing, inquiry
Antonyms: ignorance, neglect
9. Alleged(कथित)
Synonyms: purported, so-called, stated, supposed, averred
Antonyms: certain, definite, sure
10. Organically(बवाल),
Synonyms: naturally, essentially, inevitably, wholly
11. Pol arising(ध्रुवीकरण/फूट डालना)
Synonyms: part, separate, demarcate, isolate, partition
Antonyms: combine, connect, join, repair, merge
12. Communally(सामुदायिक रूप से
b all at once, as a body, as a group, as a whole, as one
13. Allegations(आरोपों)
Synonyms: accusation, charge, claim, plea, statement
Antonyms: exculpation, denial
14. Initially(शुरू में)
Synonyms: originally, at the beginning, first
15.Gravity(गंभीरता/भार)
Synonyms: pressure, weight, force, heaviness
Antonyms: frivolity, inconsequential, levity, silliness, unimportant
16.Lynch(वध करना )
Synonyms: execute, hang, kill, murder
Antonyms: bear, create
17.Impunity(माफी/दण्ड मुक्ति)
Synonyms: immunity, dispensation, exception, exemption, liberty
Antonyms: denial, prohibition, veto, imprisonment, incarceration
