'Mob lynches man as policemen watch' ran the headline for the Bhagalpur Mob Madness Incident, accompanied by the video of an irate mob, beating up a chain-snatcher.
Reader-reaction and feedback to that story were almost immediate. While on one hand, the incident raises certain bigger questions; it was heartening to see that it were the readers who were raising those questions.
Rakib wrote, "Yes, he is a pickpocket, that's probably because he was starving. Probably he is a part of a pickpocket gang. These (facts) become totally irrelevant when we hear of scandals each amounting to crores of rupees. When will people lynch these corrupt politicians and 'babus'? As of now, at least the policeman involved should be given exemplary punishment for intimidating common people."
Satish thinks on similar lines, "Big criminals like Modi, Lashkar, Jaiash, RSS-Bajrang Dal, corporate fraud perpetrators and underworld dons go unpunished but a poor, starving petty thief gets treated like an animal. Shame! India, shining?"
Rika Nair adds, "For petty theft and attempted theft they do this. What will they do to the corrupt ministers and government officials if they are caught? They are the top thieves of India. The police are no better."
Vasanthi Prabhu gets philosophical: "Why did he steal is the question to be asked. There was only poverty for him. What are we doing to the downtrodden to bring them out if this poverty and hunger that makes them commit crimes? If we can't feed them at least we must not kill them and treat them worse than animals. It is a disgrace for the police to act in such a cruel way. There is no respect to human life."
Vijay Assudani adds, "This kind of mob furry is a symptom of a much deeper collective pathology that our society today suffers from. As for the police, they have once again publicly displayed why a common man should still fear them!"
Sundar goes on a different path. "I happened to see the video. It is a ghastly one. However, the number of criminals getting away unpunished is increasing day by day including a whole lot of politicians, celebrities and bigwigs. I do not see anything wrong in what they did to the bandit knowing very well that he tried to rob an innocent lady of her jewels. I'm sure had he got away with it, she would have been left high and dry being an ordinary citizen. Let's not overreact to these occurences," he says.
Gazanfar Mirza adds, "Action of police here clearly shows that Indian police is not for giving justice or protecting people but for terrorising and humiliating.Once they become police they get licences to kill the people in custody or in encounters. Some people calls it British version of Indian police but it is not true because Britishers were not so cruel.They definately delivered justice.So this makes one feel why we got this freedom?"
The punch-line, though, is delivered by Amul Atri: "Is this what we call democracy and are proud of? This is even worst then public flogging in some of Islamic countires, because there a convict at least goes through a trial by a designated court. The police officer should be charged with no less offence than attempt to murder. Equally responsible is public which was witnessing the whole episode with zero courage and no humnaity in heart."
"IBN must follow further development and report action against the police officer. He should be punished appropriately which must be made known to the nation so that faith in judiciary system is maintained. Otherwise this incident alone will start a new trend... a very dangerous trend in which the public and police will conclude the matter on streets in the similar manner making the judiciary system redundant," Amul concludes.
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