Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi has denounced the lynching of a Muslim youth at the hands of a hardliners-led mob in Jharkhand state. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, however, has kept his silence. Not surprising any longer. The Indian prime minister has made a point of maintaining his mum following brutal violence against religious minorities. No wonder the violence not only went on unchecked throughout his previous term, it increased. Mr Naqvi says the government would not let a “destructive agenda” rule India. His statement related to a video that has gone viral on the social media. The video shows a 24-year-old man, later identified as Tabrez Ansari, tied to a pole and beaten up mercilessly. At one point, he cries and pleads to the mob to let him go. The mob insists he chant Jai Sri Ram (Hail Lord Ram). The youth could have been saved had the police taken timely action. He was beaten publicly in the Seraikela area of Jharkhand, for allegedly carrying out a burglary. The police responded 12 hours later; taking the injured youth first to jail and then to a hospital. He is no more. Since then, 11 people have been arrested and two police officials suspended from service. The incident, only the latest in a long series, vouches for the veracity of a US State Department report that violence against minority citizens has gone up in India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Extremist attacks against Muslims and low-caste Dalits in the name of protection of cows have increased over the last five years. The government has looked the other way. The Hindutva activists have become untouchables. Many suspect tacit BJP support for such actions in hope of political gains. The US report referred to, “…the government’s allowance and encouragement of mob violence against religious minorities – that have facilitated an egregious and ongoing campaign of violence, intimidation, and harassment against non-Hindu and lower-caste Hindu minorities.” The incident also highlights the growing volatility of the mobs in both Pakistan and India. Anyone accused of blasphemy is soon surrounded by a mob, which does not stop short of lynching, rioting, and vandalism. The phenomenon is a challenge to social scientists in our universities and think tanks. It has already ruined too many lives and vandalized properties of whole communities across the subcontinent. Can it be that the visible rage of the mobs stems from society’s failure to meet their basic needs? *