Mob mentality a fast developing phenomenon, say experts

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, August 27

The mayhem and arson witnessed on roads of Panchkula on August 25 will be etched in the memories of the onlookers, security personnel, Dera followers and the residents as mob violence. Mob mentality or crowd mentality is a fast developing phenomenon and Haryana has been witness to it twice recently.

Mob violence, including looting and attack on public and security forces, is backed by little planning. A majority of those who join in are youngsters who are attracted to excitement and the lure of defying authorities. A small percentage of anti-social elements are also part of the mobs but they play an important role in instigating lawless activities.

Gurjant Singh, a resident of Model Town in Phase 5, said, “Society is changing as well as disintegrating and due to which the instances of criminal activities are also increasing. Unemployment, politics and several other means of enticing the youth towards committing unlawful activities are being used. The youth must understand that it must not turn violent in a fit of rage.”

Psychology teacher Dr Ajay Kumar said the ideology of mob violence was propagated in a tense situation as a mob did not have a face. “It is a means of venting one’s ire targeting the government or any other law-maintaining authority. The frustration which may have been caused by domestic, educational, monetary or any other reason finds a channel to get out in the form of mob violence. It is not necessary that mob’s ire was ignited by the fact that the Dera head was convicted.

As several Dera followers returning from Panchkula claimed that the violence was caused by anti-social elements and not by the followers, there are chances that these anti-social elements took advantage of the opportunity,” he said.

“There is solace when one can hide face. This is the ideology behind mob mentality. This is what we have been observing whether in Kashmir or during the Jat stir in Rohtak or the more recently Panchkula incidents. Inspired, motivated and instigated by what the mob was doing in Panchkula, a handful of persons tried to destroy peace and law in other districts as well. But since they didn’t have the backing of a mob, such incidents of violence were only sporadic. In other places, the miscreants feared that they would be easily identified and caught. But the mob in Panchkula didn’t have this fear and that’s why it went berserk,” said Savita Bishnoi, a resident of Mansa where an Income-Tax office was burnt on Friday.

Elaborating on the technicalities of the cases pertaining to criminal activities involving a mob, legal experts opined that in such cases, it is only those who are arrested on the spot who get punished. The rest are left off the hook. Since a large mob was involved in the violence, members of the mob cannot be caught since they didn’t belong to the city and left the city the very day.