After Sexual Harassment Panel, Amit Shah To Head Group Of Ministers To Combat Mob Lynching

After leading the panel to prevent sexual harassment at workplaces, Union Home Minister Amit Shah will now head the Group Of Ministers (GoM), constituted in 2018 to combat mob lynching in the country.

The members of the GoM include External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thawar Chand Gehlot.

“Preventive, Remedial And Punitive Measures”

On July 26, the Supreme Court issued a notice to the Centre and ten state governments, demanding their response for not implementing the directives it had released last year to stop mob lynchings. The guidelines by the apex court included specific “preventive, remedial and punitive measures” to deal with mob lynching and cow vigilantism.

Two days before the SC’s order, Minister of State for Home G. Kishan Reddy told the Rajya Sabha that there was “no common pattern of mob lynching in the country”.

The directives were passed on the PIL by Congress activist Tehsin Poonavall, who highlighted the issue of rising incidents of mob lynching and cow vigilantism.

The Weaponisation Of ‘Jai Shri Ram’

In May and June 2018, at least 20 people were lynched based on fake rumours of child kidnapping gangs that went viral on social media messaging platforms such as WhatsApp. The Centre claimed that WhatsApp was being “abused” and it should take “immediate action to end this menace”.

Over the past few months, multiple instances surfaced where people were harassed and forced to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ by mobs.

The urgent need for government’s action to mob lynchings made headlines last week after 49 celebrities and artists wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressing concern that ‘Jai Shri Ram’ has become a war cry for lynchings.

A high-level committee led by Union Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba submitted its report to the GoM in September 2018, suggesting measures comprising stricter laws and inserting clauses in the Indian Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure with the help of parliamentary approval.

After the report, the Centre held several meetings with social media platforms and asked them to take concrete steps to pull down all the rumours that contributed to lynching.

Also, Read Panel On Workplace Sexual Harassment Reconstituted, Home Minister Amit Shah To Head It