Law against lynching if must: Rajnath

Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday told the Lok Sabha that the government would make a move to enact a separate law exclusively to deal with incidents of lynching if found necessary.

Singh indicated the openness of the government to enact a new law to deal with lynching cases, even as Mallikarjun Kharge, leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, demanded a probe into all cases of mob-violence in the recent years by a commission led by a judge of the Supreme Court.

The issue of growing mob-violence across the country continued to rock the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, with the opposition MPs raising the issue of lynching, particularly the killing of a man at Alwar in Rajasthan on Saturday.

"This didn't start only recently, the incidents of lynching have been going on for years. I have said this earlier too — the biggest mob lynching is what happened in 1984," Home minister said.

His comment was apparently aimed at turning the table on the Congress by referring to violence against Sikhs after the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1984.

Home Minister told the Lok Sabha that the government had on Monday constituted two high-level committees — one chaired by himself and another by Home Secretary — to suggest ways and legal framework to deal with incidents of mob violence.

He said the government would bring before Parliament a bill to enact a new law to deal with lynching incidents if it was found necessary.

Though the Opposition MPs wanted to raise the issue as soon as the Lok Sabha met for the day, they relented after Speaker Sumitra Mahajan assured them that she would allow them to speak during Zero Hour.

As soon as the Question Hour was over, the MPs of the Opposition Congress and TMC, however, came to the Well of the House, demanding that they should be immediately allowed to convey their concerns over lynching incidents across the country.

Kharge also came to the Well asking the Speaker to allow him to speak. The Speaker reassured them they would be allowed to speak once the papers would be laid.

Kharge said the government should order a probe by a judge of the Supreme Court and take actions against the culprits based on the findings of the inquiry.

Sudip Bandopadhyay of the TMC raised the issue and expressed concern over such incidents. He said the incidents of mob lynchings were creating an alarming situation in different parts of the country.

"We demand exemplary punishment for those who are creating mischief and creating a very uncertain situation. The parliamentary democratic system is under threat," he said.

Bandopadhyay said Union Government should not keep mum and must not allow such incidents to happen.

M Thambidurai of All India Anna Dravida Munnethra Kazhagam said that the Centre should support the state governments to deal with such incidents.

Mohammed Salim of the CPI (M) said that growing hate crimes were a matter of concern.