Don't shoot the messenger

Lynching and mob vigilantism are not just law and order issues

The criticism WhatsApp is attracting for the recent spate of lynching people suspected of being child-lifters amounts to blaming the messenger but ignoring the message. True, the free messaging service provided the platform for the viral dissemination of disinformation. But that does not explain why so many ordinary Indians harbour such a deep sense of insecurity that they felt compelled to take law and order into their hands or, indeed, confident enough to take the lives of fellow citizens in full public view. Nor does this explain why the state’s security apparatus could not have leveraged the same platform to