OPINION

Will the mob lynching stop after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’shard stance against cow vigilantism? It is a billion dollar question whether invoking the Mahatma at his Sabarmati Ashram in Gujarat by the Prime Minister will put an end to the insanity being perpetrated in the name of cow across the country.
Only a few hours before the Prime Minister denounced cow vigilantes in his home state of Gujarat, a man was lynched at Ramgarhin the BJP-ruled state of Jharkhandby an enraged mob. They suspected him of carrying beef in his vehicle. Although this incident happened before Modi’s speech at the Sabarmati Ashram, there are indicationsthat support the thesis that mob lynching is not going to stop in the near future. 
Just after his speech came the Hindu Mahasabha’sreaction that blamed the Prime Minister too for the current situation in the country. The organisatondeclared that gaurakshak(cow protectors) would “keep doing their good job” - obviously cocking a snook at the Prime Minister.Now the question arises: Has the Modi’s warning fell on deaf earsonce again?
Modi said at the Sabarmati Ashram, “Killing people in the name of gau bhakti(cow worshiping) is not acceptable. This is not something Mahatma Gandhi would approve.” He added that one must learn about cow protection from Gandhi and Vinoba Bhave.

People are the greatest safeguard, eyes and ears of a democratic system and are effective instrument of participatory and accountable government and responsive governance. Hence it need not be over emphasized that civil society is an integral part of  the voice and choice of the people and is meant to play a critical role in that process.

However, at the same time, it needs to be underlined that the civil society also has to be responsible and responsive on their part while engaging in the oppositional role whenever it becomes necessary. In the name of the civil society, the people have no right to create social and political cleavages or to deepen the existing cleavages in the name of raising transgressions on the rights of the vulnerable people. It can be noticed that most often than not the protests or marches or ‘award wapsi’ festivals are organized in a partisan manner or at least this is the impression one gets at the behavior of the civil society activists.

The call for Gorkhaland is emotive. The bugle this time has been blown by Bimla Gurung of Gorakha Janmukti Morcha (GJM).  This is the third call in the last thirty years.Bimal Gurung's GorkhaJanmukti Morcha (GJM) has a brute majority in the hills of Darjeeling.
Other Darjeeling based political parties too joined the agitation and participated in an all-party meeting wherein the major decision was scrapping the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA). The next all party meeting is due on June 29at Darjeeling. The agenda for the meeting is simple -- the civil society will settle for nothing short of Gorkhaland and how this can be achieved, the political class needs to find answers.
The call from hills of Darjeeling has received echoes from across the nation; starting from Sikkim led by the CM Pawan Chamling in person, Mumbai, Delhi, Assam, Manipur, Mizoram,  Bengaluru, Dharamasla and Dehradun. It has also received support abroad in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, London, Malaysia, to name a few places. Civil society spread nationally fully supports Gorkhaland as it stands for Gorkha identity, and gives them a homeland a place where, Gorkha, language, art, custom and tradition will be preserved.  The political class of all hues needs to be fully aware, that Gorkha civil society which bears the stick end of the state, when it comes to issue of ration cards or providing welfare funds, or carrying out documentation, are fed up of being asked especially at the rural level, are you an Indian or a Nepali. 

It is an end of an era. At least for those of us who were fortunate enough to know and were taught by Mrs. Farhat Kumar in St. Mary’s Academy Meerut, Loretto Convent in Lucknow and several other schools in different part of India for Mrs Kumar was married to an Indian Army officer who travelled all over India in different cantonement towns.
Just as I was looking forward to wishing her Mubarak this Eid, her younger son Aftab informed that she had passed away on 5th September (ironically on a Teacher's Day) last year succumbing to lung cancer. As our class teacher in Class VIIIth, she introduced us to humanistic stories written by Norah Burke in “Jungle Pictures” – stories that came alive much later in a landscape that is today Corbett Tiger Reserve and thus started my lifelong romance with Corbett which has continued to this date. We will forever miss you Madam!
I have not known any great leader past or present – I only knew Mrs. Kumar. Stunningly beautiful with deep blue eyes, an aquiline nose and sharp features, Mrs. Kumar was always tastefully dressed and a picture of elegance. But what made her remarkable was her sense of values, her discrimination of right and wrong. With a mettle harder than steel, she would stand to her principles refusing to budge even an inch whatever may be the nature of the pressure.

The dastardly act of lynching DSP Mohammad Ayub Pandit at the historic Jamia Mosque in Srinagar on the night of Shab-E-Qadr has reminded the dark era of the 1990s when policemen and public alike feared to venture out on the streets.The same fear came back when a radicalised mob killed the DSP on Thursday in the heart of the city. 
DSP Ayub Pandit belonged to the Security Wing of Jammu and Kashmir Police who was deployed at the mosque to protect the devotees. He was on the guard to see that no miscreants enter the mosque premises and vitiate the atmosphere while namazis pray. 
It is an irony that this incident occurred in the holy month of Ramzan and that too on the night of Shab-E-Qadr when Muslims pray for forgiveness for their sins. It’s disturbing that when vengeful mob was beating the DSP, nobody came to his rescue. Many people would have identified him since he was a resident of Nowpora area, barely a few kilometers away from Nowhatta where the mosque is situated. 
It is no less ironic that when the blood thirsty mob was on the rampage, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, whose father was killed by militants too,was preaching tenets of Islam on the premises of the mosque. Neither he nor did his supporters come out to protect their brethren. It’s another matter that he later tweeted condemning the brutal killing as if a second thought occurred to him.