India Needs a Law Akin To SC/ST Act To Truly Protect Muslims

Assault over religion is different from general altercation, and the legal system needs to acknowledge that.

Recently, a Muslim e-rickshaw driver was paraded through a street, assaulted and allegedly forced to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ by a group of men in Kanpur. The most disturbing part of the video shared widely over social media was his crying little daughter clinging to him and pleading desperately with the assailants to spare him. Later, as NDTV reported, a mob of Bajrang Dal workers held a protest outside the police station and left only after “assurances” from the police.

The accused were given bail immediately. The case against them was registered under Sections 147 (rioting; punishment two years), 323 (simple hurt; punishment one year), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace; punishment two years) and 506 (criminal intimidation; punishment two years) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). These are bailable sections and under the 2008 amendment to Section 41 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC ), arrest is not mandatory for offences involving less than seven years imprisonment. As such, the police was technically correct in giving bail to them.

The problem lies both with the law and the “selective” manner in which it is applied. The police did not think it proper to initiate proceedings against the mob under Section 107 of the CrPC (security for keeping peace) either. The drama of the SP visiting the girl’s home would never heal the scars.

‘Jai Shri Ram’: From a Greeting To a Battle Cry

From a sociological and historico-cultural perspective, ‘Jai Shri Ram’ is a relatively recent phenomenon. Almost all over the Hindi belt, people had been saying ‘Ram Ram’, ‘Jai Ram ji ki’ or ‘Jai Siya Ram’ as a form of greeting for ages. ‘Jai Shri Ram’ as a battle cry came to be heard in Ramanand Sagar’s popular TV serial ‘Ramayan’. It spread during the agitation for the Ram Temple at Ayodhya. From a greeting, the invocation of Ram acquired a more aggressive and assertive character in ‘Jai Shri Ram’, akin to a battle cry.

There have been many other incidents, too, in which people have been insulted on account of their religion, while simultaneously, other IPC offences like assault are committed on them.