Political rhetoric can often conceal unpleasant realities. Rhetoric’s righteous opponent, in such instances, is unambiguity that reveals sordid truths. The leader of the Opposition, Rahul Gandhi, has set an example by speaking unambiguously on a sensitive subject that the Opposition, including Mr Gandhi’s own party, fears to touch even with the proverbial bargepole. After yet another incident of lynching — a migrant worker from Bengal was murdered in poll-bound Haryana this time — Mr Gandhi took up the cudgels on behalf of India’s minorities, such as Muslims, and squarely blamed the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party for giving a free hand to this kind of criminality. The National Crime Records Bureau, quite tellingly, had stopped collating data on mob lynchings — Narendra Modi’s government found the data to be unreliable — but there is plenty of evidence to suggest that India has witnessed a sickening rise in such hate crimes under Mr Modi’s watch. Half-a-dozen such killings, some estimates suggest, have already taken place since Mr Modi was returned to power for a third term, with cow vigilantes, as the death of a young student in Faridabad has shown, having a disproportionate hand in these crimes. India has had to face international censure for its failure to protect the lives of minorities in recent years. Even the existence of legal deterrents — the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita has specific punitive provisions for mob lynching — has not made much of a difference.

The impunity of the criminals can be attributed to two different kinds of complicity. The BJP, it can be argued with evidence, has not only patronised its foot soldiers who have blood on their hands but also succeeded in creating a polarised social ambience that endorses or ignores such assaults. But it is not as if the Opposition is blameless. On most occasions, the BJP’s political opponents have been diffident about censuring such crimes. The Congress, to cite a recent example, had taken up its concerns with the template of bulldozer justice without naming Muslims even though data suggest that Muslims and Dalits have borne the brunt of such perverse justice. It is this combination of tacit encouragement on the part of the regime and the hesitation of the political Opposition to call, in a manner of speaking, a spade a spade that has emboldened the criminals. The rule of law must be allowed to deal with these excesses. But it must be accompanied by honest — political — conversations identifying the real culprits and the victims of majoritarian impulses.