On July 7th, villagers in a village in Khandwa district in Madhya Pradesh had caught several people smuggling cattle to Maharashtra. 25 people were caught smuggling 22 cows on 8 vehicles. The people in the village had tied the smugglers with a rope, made them to do sit-ups, hold their ears and chant ‘Gau Mata Ki Jai’, and had also paraded them to the police station for around 2 km. Around 100 villagers were involved in the incident.
Later police had booked the smugglers and confiscated their vehicles, the cattle they were transporting, and also other valuable items like cash and jewellery. Police had confirmed that they didn’t have any permission to transport the animals, neither they had documents of the same. A case against the villagers was also registered for vigilantism instead of bringing the smugglers directly to the police.
But in an attempt to further propagate the narrative of ‘mob lynching’ by Hindus, several media houses, journalists and politicians chose to hide the fact that the 25 people caught by the villagers were smuggling cattle. They have tried to create an impression that 25 innocent people were just transporting cows and the villagers caught and punished them for no reason.
Advocate and leftist activist Prashant Bhushan chose to link Narendra Modi and Amit Shah in this case of mob justice, while ignoring the reason why they were doing it.
100 Bajrang Dal goons tie up 25 men, parade them & make them chant ‘Gau Mata ki Jai’. In this growing Lynch mob Republic, we must all chant Modi/Shah ki Jai! https://t.co/4TPToaLZ2r
— Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) July 8, 2019
Journalist Shekhar Gupta also didn’t mention that the villagers had caught people smuggling cows, which is a crime.
A group of men were tied-up in Khandwa, MP on Sunday & made to chant “Gau Mata Ki Jai” for ‘smuggling’ cows.
This comes 2 days after govt brought in an amendment to the MP Bovine Slaughter Prohibition Act, 2004, reports @kairvygrewalhttps://t.co/5iz00NucS4
— Shekhar Gupta (@ShekharGupta) July 8, 2019
Many other media reports presented the news as innocent cattle traders were caught by cow vigilantes, which was shared by journalists, politicians and others
Another day in the life of the republic…On Video, 24 Thrashed, Forced To Say “Gau Mata Ki Jai” In Madhya Pradesh – NDTV https://t.co/9ejBGQ3WEm
— Saba Naqvi (@_sabanaqvi) July 8, 2019
In its report about the incident, Indian Express also tried to bring a Hindu-Muslim angle by mentioning that 7 of the 25 persons are Muslims. The fact that the rest are Hindus prove the fact that there was no religious angle to the incident.
Ever since Modi government came back to power, there is a desperate attempt by the left-liberal ecosystem to create a narrative that mob lynching by Hindus has increased in India. People in India often hand over instant justice when they catch thieves, smugglers, pick-pocketers etc. Although it’s not correct and legal, people tend to beat up such criminals before handing them over to police. But now media has taken the task of converting such incidents of into mob lynching whenever the people involved are Hindus and the criminal caught is Muslim.
Therefore, although it is illegal to take law in own hands, the context has to be reported to present a news properly. The villagers caught the people because they were smuggling cattle, this is an important detail which gives a completely different angle to the case, as against the angle that the media is trying to give.
The latest example of the same to grab national headline is the Tabrez Ansari who was beaten up by the public on the accusation of theft. He had died four days later in police custody due to cardiac arrest. But media kept the fact hidden that he was accused of theft, and a narrative of Hindus mob lynching a Muslim was created.
