[Chickenosaurus]

It's great WhatsApp took steps to prevent the spread of false information but that isn't the root of the problem. The root of the problem is of a cultural nature.

At present there is no law that criminalises mob killings. For that reason, the perpetrators are often not prosecuted by the police. A law that makes clear mob killings are unacceptable would go a long way in changing the cultural stance towards such acts.

Thankfully, the Manav Suraksha Kanoon (law to protect humans) could close this legal gap soon.

[srean]

Add to that the fact that the higher echelons of the current government turns a blind eye to lynching and hate crime, whereas at the grassroots they encourage such lynchings. Lynching to death over diet preferences (beef) is a very recent phenomena emboldened by the implicit promise by the government that there will be no consequences.

Recently the chief minister of the state of Tripura reacted to a reporter's questions on lynching by stating that there is a "wave of happiness" going on an that this is the government of the people and "people will act" and one should just embrace it. Of course later there was the usual run of the mill back tracking that he was misquoted and that he was quoted out of context -- the usual PR drill.

Its only after some repeated instances that go on for months there will be a token "we are against this" soundbyte, but just that -- a soundbyte wink wink.

[calvinbhai]

Lack of law enforcement, or even the capability to enforce the basic laws, leads to this lynching behavior.

India can bring in N number of laws, but without addressing enforcement, all it helps is to give a false sense of achievement to activists asking for such laws.

Also, saying "Google Engineer" and "India" really distorts what actually led to this lynching since Law and Order is the responsibility of the State Govt, and the location where this happened, is not really urban. (Police in rural areas are not equipped to handle situations like this).

I'd rather not discuss it on HN, since my knowledge of this incident is based on the front page headline on Times of India, but the gist of it is one of those 3 who was lynched, forcefully offered a chocolate/candy to a girl. Girl started crying. Now, any male stranger offering chocolates to kids forcefully, is suspicious anywhere in the world isn't it? So villagers took law into their own hands.

The OP news report on dw.com seems to be distorting the main issue here and trying to blame the central govt of India, for an issue that is purely under the jurisdiction of the state govt of Karnataka (which is in fact the opposition party in the center).

[sumedh]

> For that reason, the perpetrators are often not prosecuted by the police.

You also have to talk about the other side, in most of the cases the Police dont take any action if a local thug has the support of some big politician or bribes the police.

Lynching is the only solution people are left with.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akku_Yadav

[srean]

To a certain extent you are right. If the only way to get at some semblance of justice is by street violence, that is what you will get. This is essentially the failure of governance, a government that is selectively absent because it suits them that way.

That said, the Indian populace needs to grow up and not behave like insolent children throwing a tantrum. It should not be the job of the media companies to control what they read or don't. The more one acts towards them like protective parents shielding there eyes and ears, the more they will continue to act like tantrum throwing children -- they have nothing to lose that way, only to gain.

Catch a few, and make them public examples by throwing the book at them, they will fall in line -- but no the government will not do that because they have vested interests.

[sumedh]

> the Indian populace needs to grow up and not behave like insolent children throwing a tantrum.

Well that is the second order bit, the first order bit is that Indian populace needs have faith in its Police and Govt but as you said that is not going to happen.

[srean]

Agreed. Don't want to agree, but reality is not giving me many options. The way to fix this is to make quick public examples of the bad actors.

Truth be told, in the Akku Yadav case, I don't know how I would have reacted if I was there.

[sumedh]

> The way to fix this is to make quick public examples of the bad actors.

Totally agree, I really thought Modi might do something but I was wrong.

[ap3]

>At present there is no law that criminalises mob killings

No law against murder?

[ryanlol]

>At present there is no law that criminalises mob killings

Surely you're joking?

[Chickenosaurus]

Legal ground for the prosecution of individuals who participated in mob lynchings exists but is rather weak at the moment. The source for the above statements is https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/its-time-to-enact-an-a...

[king_nothing]

You’re talking about India: where slavery is alive and well, college girls are locked in at night and rape/domestic violence goes virtually unpunished, with police as “quality” as those in Afghanistan. VICE did a piece on this. Also, sectarian violence there is normal.

[sctb]

Also in the category of generic flamewars unsuitable for Hacker News: nationalistic ones. Can you stop these like we've asked you to stop the others?

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html