Fundamental right is not to kill but to live
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Celebrations continue as the Twenty20 World Cup title returns to Indian soil after a gap of 17 years. Thousands of people gathered near the New Delhi International Airport to welcome the players who came with the Cup, while lakhs of people turned out in Mumbai, where the victory parade was held. While cricket lovers across the country continue to be in victory fervour, in Gujarat, the home of the country's largest cricket stadium, the home of the Prime Minister, the Union Home Minister, and the BCCI Secretary, a family who loved cricket more than life is bowing their heads in tears, unable to see or know it - Salman Vora, a 23-year-old from a family where cricket was their lifeblood and who celebrated every moment the Indian players shined on the crease, was lynched during a cricket match not too long ago. A local tournament in Gujarat's Chikhodra saw players belonging to a 'particular' community perform well, leaving the crowd upset and outraged. In a world where sporting events help to erase the boundaries and antagonisms between people and nations, violence in the name of the religion of the player has gone to an extreme. The intoxicated assailants started quarrelling over parking and that later escalated into assault. As the mob thrashed Salman, the cries rose for sixes and catch till then turned into 'hit him'. Out of the 5,000 people who came to watch the cricket match, only a few people decided to say not to hit him. It was a dead body, beaten with cricket bats and stabbed, that reached his pregnant wife, who was waiting for her beloved. There were reports that 12 people had been charged with murder, and efforts were being made to expunge the names of some, while Salman Vora's killing couldn't find space among headlines as lynchings took place in other parts of the country.
Every one of those murders is so sad and pitiful. Within a month alone after the third National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government led by Narendra Modi came to power, there have been ten horrific incidents of mob violence in Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and West Bengal, the civil rights group Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR) report released in Delhi shows. Most of the victims in all these are Muslims and people from Dalit communities. When there is often a delay in taking action, including arrest, against the perpetrators of such atrocities, another strange thing happened the last day. A man named Firoz Quraishi, who earned his livelihood by collecting and selling junk materials, was brutally beaten up by a gang in Shamili, UP, accusing him of being a thief, and died soon after. The family had filed a complaint with the police alleging that Feroze's death was caused by a gang attack. However, the UP Police has registered a case against journalists Zakir Ali Tyagi, Wasim Akram Tyagi and others, who shared their posts, for calling the incident a lynching. They are accused of inciting enmity between people on the basis of religion and caste.
According to the nw Indian penal code, which came into effect on July 1, murders committed by a group of five or more people come under the category of lynching. In the complaint filed by Firoz's family, only two names were mentioned. Even before getting the post-mortem report, the police officials insisted that the cause of death was not beating. Even though the Press Club of India, Indian Women's Press Corps, and Committee for the Protection of Journalists have raised their voice against the prosecution of journalists who report the incident on the basis of evidence, the police are proceeding with the action. The right to live with dignity is a fundamental right guaranteed to every citizen of India by the Constitution. Mass murders are a cruel crime that harms it. Law enforcement agencies and legal codes have the responsibility to eliminate the opportunities and conditions for this injustice that was carried out in the name of religion and caste, as well as fabricating crimes. Mob violence will never end if the practice of imprisoning the victims and those who question it are framed in cases instead of bringing the perpetrators to justice.
