Catholic leaders have found fault with the move by a central Indian state to award one million Indian rupees as compensation for mob lynching victims.
“A one million [US$12,039.74] compensation package sounds good to one’s ears but in reality, it exposes the failure of the state administration to protect its people from such a horrible crime,” said Jerry Paul, national president of Sarva Isai Mahasabha (All-Christians Grand Council).
The Madhya Pradesh government on Sept. 9 announced the ‘Mob Lynching Victim Compensation Scheme.’ The financial compensation will be paid to families of individuals, who are killed in mob lynching incidents, it announced.
The scheme also awards compensation to those who sustain injuries in a mob lynching incident.
“Under this scheme, mob lynching has been specified as the killing of any person or persons by a group of five or more persons on grounds of religion, caste, sex, place of birth, language, food habits, sexual orientation, political affiliation, ethnicity or other such ground or grounds,” reported The Hindu newspaper.
“The role of the government is to protect everyone and ensure no such crime takes place,” Paul told UCA News on Sept. 15.
The Christian lay leader demanded that the government “tighten laws” so that no one dares to commit such a crime.
Mob lynching of Dalits or former untouchables and Muslims became a serious law and order problem in India since 2014, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power.
Mob lynching is mainly attributed to cow vigilante groups in the country who resort to violence under the guise of protecting the cow, a revered animal in Hinduism.
This story was originally published in ucanews.com. Read the full story here