Centre seeks clarifications on Rajasthan, Manipur lynching bills

New Delhi [India], March 15 (ANI): The Centre has sought clarifications from the Governments of Rajasthan and Manipur on their respective anti-lynching bills, informed Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai on Tuesday in Lok Sabha.
Anandpur Sahib Congress MP Manish Tewari had asked whether the Government has been delaying the review consultation process with the bill from Rajasthan Government under inter-ministerial consultation since 2019 and the one from Manipur since 2018.
Rai replied that the Government has received "The Rajasthan Protection From Lynching Bill, 2019" and "The Manipur Protection from Mob Violence Bill, 2018". After consultation with the nodal Ministries/Departments, certain clarifications have been sought from the respective Governments.
Tewari had also asked whether the National Crimes Records Bureau (NCRB) started collecting data on mob lynching, hate crimes and cow vigilantism, and why the data were not published.
The minister replied that in the year 2017, NCRB collected data on cases of mob-lynching, hate crimes etc, but it was observed that the data was unreliable.
In a reply to the question of whether it is a fact that there has been a four-fold increase in hate speech incidents between 2015-2020 as recorded in the Crime in India-2020 report by the National Crimes Record Bureau, Rai said that NCRB does not maintain data under heading "hate speech".
The question was also asked on whether it is a fact that lynching is not defined as a crime under the Indian Penal Code, Rai replied that yes, it is not defined under IPC. (ANI)