In a recent report, the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) has found that Kerala reported the “highest number of mob violence” in country even as the trend shows no signs of ebbing. In that report, NCM Vice-Chairman George Kurian raised serious concerns over the “alarming rise” in lynching and mob attack cases in the state.
Shockingly, the report also found that “…in a majority of such cases the victims were either members of minority communities or marginalised communities and migrant workers.”
A tribal mentally-challenged youth, Madhu, was brutally lynched for allegedly stealing food worth less than Rs 100. The assaulters took selfies with the hapless victim. As rightly pointed out by Kurian, “the rise violence is a reflection of lawlessness and loss of moral quotient in the society.”
Most recently, Rajkumar, a converted Christian youth, was savaged by policemen in custody. They applied chilli paste onto his genitals, broke his ribs, spine and took out his nails.
A Dalit plus-two student was brutally assaulted by a cop allegedly for giving a “love-letter” to a CPI(M) leader’s relative. The boy succumbed to his injuries.
A rough estimate says about 24 custodial deaths have taken place in Kerala ever since Pinarayi Vijayan took charge as the Chief Minister. Moreover, he handles the Home portfolio. But no one, the so-called ‘cultural leaders’, not even Adoor Gopalakrishnan has raised their voice against lynching cases, custodial deaths happening in Kerala.
“Although media highlights stray incidents of mob violence elsewhere in the country, similar incidents in Kerala rarely get national attention,” the NCM Vice-Chairman had pointed out.
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