Kairana and beyond- The rule of law recourse is not sufficient

Athar Husain
In the light of recent incidents in UP where small incidents of skirmishes which were earlier used to be settled within the society framework eventually lead to communally charged situation, furthermore to add fuel to fire certain individuals, group and organizations spread hatred through rumour mongering and using modern techniques of social media for spread of such hatred. Today in times of round the clock coverage of electronic media/social media certain news channels/media services for their personal interest or mediocrity of their reporting staff become gullible to such hate mongering and act as catalyst to spread of communal tension in society. Further, certain organizations and groups in the name of providing service to society indulge into spread of hate mongering activities knowingly or unknowingly.

The rule of law recourse is not sufficient

There are provisions of law to bring such habitual perpetrators of hate mongering to justice, but it has been found that taking only the rule of law recourse is not sufficient, since this malaise of hate mongering generates within society so certain redressal methods to address this malaise should come within framework of society through dialogue.
A mechanism be built where in every district of UP, police administration, media people and social groups active politically within society be engaged at regular intervals and they together try to stop spread of hate mongering outside the framework of Rule of Law and enforcement. Further within this mechanism a provision be made that individuals can access to verify the truth of rumour mongering .
In the light of recent incident of Kairana where a senior political leader made certain allegations related to migration of local population

of one section of society because of intimidation of another section of society had all the making of creating social/communal tensions in Kairana and around but timely intervention by national media made that politicians claim to look hollow and averted any untoward incident which normally such situations lead to. But, normally such timely interventions by media are rare so we have to develop some mechanisms to have such interventions at local level.

Good governance is all about deliverance
Good governance is all about deliverance and by creating social tensions certain sections of polity try to create hurdles for good governance to serve their own political interests so it is imperative now for good governance to be cautious of those elements who spread such hatred in society so that actually who are most deprived sections of society remain most deprived and development remains a fruit for few.