Condemn the Horrific Mob Lynching in Dimapur!

Reject the Ideology and Politics of Communal / Racist Profiling and Witch-Hunt, Anywhere and Everywhere!

In a most shocking and horrific incident, a rape accused was dragged out of a prison, stripped naked, dragged on the streets, beaten, pelted with stones and lynched to death. This horrific incident needs to be strongly condemned in no uncertain terms. This sort of ‘mob justice’, delivered with scant regard for evidence and due process, flies in the face of the very idea of justice and democracy. Such bloodthirsty vengeance and blatant denial of basic, fundamental human rights cannot be a substitute for ‘justice’ under any circumstance.

It needs to be understood very clearly that this sort of vigilante action and mob ‘justice’ is not what the women’s movement has been fighting for. Gender justice is inexorably linked with justice, rights, liberties for all and resolutely fights discrimination of all sorts. It must be ensured that a person who is accused of sexual violence is guaranteed due process and a free and fair investigation. Mob lynching of suspected rapists and molesters who are perceived and projected as ‘outsiders’ and ‘others’ only weakens the struggle against sexual violence.

Such vigilante action is unfortunately not an aberration, and most often feeds on racial, communal and patriarchal prejudices that are prevalent in society. Right here in Delhi, we have had several incidents when the person perceived as the ‘other’, and accused of some wrongdoing, has been sentenced by the ‘community’ and subjected to vigilante action. In the Khirki village incident for instance, a mob, led by no less than Delhi’s Law Minister, broke several laws and raided several houses based on the racist assumption that all ‘blacks’ are drug peddlers and prostitutes. Similarly, in the Dimapur incident, such frenzy could possibly be whipped up against just one of the several rape accused in the state because he happened to be a Bengali speaking Muslim.

A communal campaign to label all Bengali speaking Muslims as ‘illegal Bangladeshi immigrants’ (IBIs) has been growing not just in Nagaland, but across the North East. The Dimapur incident only underlines the huge dangers of this malicious campaign. This incident in fact, is a horrific revelation of the pitfalls of certain groups trying to pitch one oppressed community against the other. The person who was brutally lynched was branded as a rapist and an illegal immigrant – when the fact is that he was a Assamese Muslim from Karimganj, with several family members even working in the Indian armed forces. This horrific incident only showcases the danger of communal and racist campaigns to stereotype certain communities.

AISA strongly condemns the Dimapur lynching, and appeals to the student community to robustly reject all possible attempts to whip up communal or racist frenzy again anyone who is perceived as the ‘other’. We, should collectively resisted and will continue to steadfastly resist, any racist assault or racist stereotyping of people from the north-east. Similarly, we will stand against any communal campaign to stigmatise people based on religion and language. The battle for gender justice, democracy and justice cannot jettison the very principles it is based on.