India, Jan. 3 -- As India celebrated the onset of a new year, a bunch of videos on social media platforms showed a group of men brandishing swords and machetes in a residential colony in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh - no more than an hour from the national Capital. The group, which calls itself the Hindu Raksha Dal (HRD), posed happily for photographs behind a long wooden table on which the swords were displayed. The purported video then shows the men going from house to house handing out swords, claiming that what happened in Bangladesh could happen in India too, and, therefore, Hindus must protect themselves. The police arrested 10 members of the HRD, but its chief, Pinky Chaudhary, was able to flee and is evidently absconding. That did not stop him from releasing a video on X.com, from a verified, blue-tick handle, in which he declared with brazen impunity and lack of fear that the group had achieved what it wished to. This was one in a series of such chilling incidents this past week. Vandalism and mob attacks are being normalised. And silence or even subtle distancing is hardly an effective, or even appropriate, response anymore. Christmas and New Year's celebrations were the specific target of Right-wing vandals and mobs. In Raipur, a mob of 40-50 men carrying sticks forced its way into a prominent shopping mall and went on the rampage, pulling down balloons, decorations, Christmas trees, and even a Santa Claus prop. The mall says that property worth at least Rs.15,00,000 was damaged or destroyed altogether. The ugly assault coincided with a Chhattisgarh Bandh called for on Christmas Eve by the Sarv Hindu Samaj and other Hindutva groups, to protest alleged religious conversions. The bandh is said to have been triggered by community clashes over the burial of a person from a family that had converted. Ironically, the Raipur mall was also closed to the public because of the bandh. But testimonies from mall employees reveal that the mob came charging at the staff, overpowering the security guards and demanding to see ID cards. They asked people to prove if they were Hindu or Christian. One employee is quoted by newspapers as saying that the men kept shouting that they did not want to see Santa. Seven men reportedly linked to the Bajrang Dal were arrested and denied bail by a Raipur court. In response, 300 men blocked an arterial road outside the police station and reportedly blocked traffic for nine hours. In Delhi's popular Lajpat Nagar market, a mob accosted a group of women wearing Santa caps and started heckling and threatening them. The video shows the women shocked as a bunch of men order them to "go straight home". They objected to the public display of the caps, dismissing it as a "drama". Earlier the same week, a district vice-president of the BJP, Anju Bhargava, stormed into a church and charged at a visually impaired woman. The video shows her leaning over and grabbing the woman by her face. Bhargava is heard telling her that she is blind in this life and will be blind in the next one too. Once again, the mob assault was justified in the name of protests against alleged forced conversions. There are those who argue that social media has amplified the fringe, and these acts of vandalism remain few and far between in a country of a billion-plus people. The test of that lies in two responses - how exemplary the punishment is for such offenders and how strongly they are rebuked by those who wield power, politically and spiritually. On Christmas morning, Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi attended a church service at the Cathedral Church of the Redemption, joining the country in prayers and celebrations. There was clear and distinct messaging in the six-minute video he shared on X.com. BJP president JP Nadda also participated in Christmas celebrations at a school in the capital. It should have been enough for the lumpens to retreat. But is the far-Right ready to take its cue from the PM? Isn't the need of the hour public and official repudiation by leaders of the Sangh Parivar or Hindu spiritual leaders? If these mobs were made up of Muslim men, the media would have asked ulemas and maulvis and prominent members of the Muslim community for their response, wouldn't it? And if the argument is that the men who lead such mob attacks are plain and simple thugs and need not be tagged by their religion, we would need to extend the same logic and exemption when criminals of other faiths behave similarly. Besides, several of these criminal assaults are being done in the name of "saving" Hinduism. And so, more and more people need to speak up and say - not in our name. I always believe that a majority of Indians recognise that our pluralism and our diversity are our strengths. We celebrate these just as we celebrate all our festivals. We also know that such incidents only diminish us. But the problem with mob violence is precisely its nuisance value. Many people choose to remain quiet and sidestep the exchange with mobster-men whose response is not words, but sticks. I understand that instinct for personal safety. But the only way to stop bullies is to look them in the eye. We should not duck the argument anymore. Our condemnation should be unequivocal. Remember, the next time it could be us, or our children, out for a stroll at a Christmas Bazaar when the mob comes with threats and sticks....