First it was Muslims accused of killing cows, then it was Dalits accused of killing cows or having the temerity to ride a horse. Now, it is suspected child abductors. The rule of the BJP has seen a rising tide of public hysteria and lynching (close to 30 killed in two months up to early June), fuelled by WhatsApp messages spreading at the speed of light.
Researchers and academics will, in good time, definitively determine why lynching turned into public madness, and what should have been speedily done so that things did not go to the extent they did. . . .