The debate on India’s depressed growth would remain constrained if it overlooks the increasingly dominant behavioural and socio-psychological trends. It is instructive here to underline the utilitarian principle that dictates governments to promote “greatest happiness among greatest numbers” through four main goals of subsistence, abundance, equality and, security of all. Incidents such as what happened in Seraikela-Kharsawa district in Jharkhand on June 17 where Tabrez Ansari, 25, was tied to a pole, thrashed by a mob that forced him to chant “Jai Shri Ram” and “Jai Hanuman” and was emboldened enough to circulate a video of this obscene disregard for the law, militate against the very idea of the goal of prosperity and happiness. Jharkhand is home to 40 per cent of India’s mineral wealth and constitutes an ideal location for power and cement plans, auto components et al and has housed among the largest steel plants and commercial manufacturing units by Tata Motors.

Any threat to public tranquillity here has a direct bearing on the potential to harvest the state’s vast resources and accelerate economic activity. The Jharkhand police have thus served poorly in terms of restoring public faith in the rule of law by diluting the penal sections against the 11 accused from murder in the FIR to culpable homicide in the chargesheet submitted this week. The decision has, while deepening a growing sense of insecurity among the minorities, simultaneously spurred right-wing outfits such as VHP to declare that “jihadists” and their “advocates among secular devils” have been taught a lesson. In the celebration of its first 100 days, the Government ought to be mindful that rule of law is not just a moral necessity but a rational, utilitarian need for the progress of a civilised nation-state. Justice must, therefore, be seen to be done in Tabrez Ansari’s public lynching and subsequent death.

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