Mob violence is increasing

Every other day, we see in India, violence of various kinds, road rage, violence involving mob, etc for various reasons, some which are very trivial. The government is not able to handle these situations and watch the violence helplessly as the laws are not enough to handle such situations. The victims under such situations are the young children, girls and elderly. The young people of today, in general are not able to control their emotions, either singly or as a group. Peace and harmony in the society is missing. May be, it is becoming a world wide phenomenon.

The unity in diversity is really not true. In most of the instances, the mob fury is connected with caste, class and religion. The benefits of reservation in education and jobs are driving people to agitate so as to include their community in the list of scheduled cast/tribes or backward class communities. Most of the issues are fueled by the local politicians. The police force is not allowed to act in a professional and efficient manner. In fact, the police force is made the target of the violence. The government follows a simple rule: Allow violent incidents and then react mildly. This helps them to draw enough political mileage from the incidents. Common man is at the receiving end.

Many reasons can be quoted for such ubiquitous violent behavior. The so-called economic boom has only widened the gap between rich and the poor. There is excessive competitiveness in the society. There are no stringent laws to tackle the situations in the initial “building-up” stages. Too much political interference, multiple party governments, corrupt police force, corruption in the government departments, irresponsible media coverage, etc, etc. Terrorist activities only compounded many of the issues.

The needs of the hour are education of the youth and make them aware of their responsibilities along with their rights, professionally managed police force without any political interference, reservations only on the basis of family income, stringent laws against corruption, and finally the positive role of the media to promote peace.