Published on Jul 8, 2017
The student activist, one of the founding members of the National Campaign Against Mob Lynching Speaks to Communalism Combat/Newsclickon MASUKA, a Draft Law to Prevent Lynching The Maanav Suraksha Kanoon Draft Law and is Out for Public Discussion. Sabrangindia appeals to all Indians to put pressure on the Lawmakers to Pass this Law to ensure that Mobs are controlled and the Rule of Law prevails.
In this 15 minute Video Interview she speaks of how the Vulnerable Sections of Society,Women, the Differently Abled, Trans Genders
have always been subject to brute violence and the mobs have gotten free.
Now, under the Modi government the lynch mobs have trained themselves on Muslims and Dalits.
The time has come, she says for the gaps in the law, that does not define mass crimes and lynchings to be filled.
In the US, the lynchings had taken a particularly gruesome racial colour in the 1920s and there had been a move for such a law.
Sabrangindia has been reporting extensively on largescale attacks of the mob as also the campaign for MASUKA, the new law to Prevent Mob Lynchings
Background:
The draft of Maanav Suraksha Kanoon (MASUKA), a new law to address the menace of mob lynching was unveiled at the Constitution Club in New Delhi on July7 . Sabrangindia had highlighted how the national campaign pushing such a law had prepared the draft by last week.
The law is being proposed by the National Campaign Against Mob Lynching – founded by youth leaders Tehseen Poonawalla, Shehla Rashid, Kanhaiya Kumar and Jignesh Mewani – as a response to a spate of lynching incidents that have rattled the nation over the last few months.The drafting committee of the MASUKA, headed by senior Supreme Court lawyer Sanjay Hegde, includes Anas Tanwir and Pranjal Kishore.
The draft "bill" criminalises inaction by authorities as well as indirect incitement of mobs through vilification. Under the draft law, “lynching” shall mean any act or series of acts of violence as extra judicial punishment, whether spontaneous or planned, committed to inflict summary punishment, or as an act of protest upon a person. Punishment is a maximum of life imprisonment for the crime, once prosecuted.
Police officers and district magistrates who “wilfully omits to exercise lawful authority vested in him under this Act and thereby fails to prevent the commission of any act of lynching, shall be punished with imprisonment which may extend to one year, or with fine, or with both. There is also a provision for compensation that will not be less than Rs 25 lakhs.