It was good to read that Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke about the lynching incident in Jharkhand and that he was sad at the news and was pained by it. Modi should have been stronger in castigating this attack on a Muslim man who was set upon by a mob for whom some claim was theft, though others dispute that.

Though he did say that the culprits must get the strongest punishment, which is better than keeping mum, something Modi had done in his first tenure as Prime Minister, this is still a soft response. Which law in the world says that a thief should be tied to a tree, beaten by people through the night and made to chant Jai Shri Ram?