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The students have said that the ban is “another declaration of war on the democratic rights of the people”. Many called it food fascism
Kumkum Chadha
When R. Sooraj was among those organizing the beef festival and actively participating in it, he had expected repercussions. But little had he anticipated that these would be so serious. His going against the holy cow nearly cost him his eye.The writer is a senior Indian journalist, political commentator and columnist of The Independent. She can be reached at: (kumkum91@gmail.com) Sooraj, was badly beaten up allegedly by some students protesting against the “beef fest” held on the campus. He was surrounded when he was having lunch and beaten black and blue. He sustained injuries including one on his eye.
A Ph.d scholar of IIT Madras, Sooraj is associated with the Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle. Those who attacked him claimed to be Sangh parivar supporters, according to Sooraj’s friends.
They said that the incident was part of a sustained campaign and students who had participated in the beef festival were threatened and targeted by right wing elements.
Discontent on the campus was brewing following the Centre’s controversial notification prohibiting the sale of cattle, including buffaloes, for slaughter at livestock markets.The new rules do not amount to a blanket ban on cattle trade or their slaughter, and license breeding remains legal.
The central regulation allows only farmland owners to trade at animal markets. It covers bulls, bullocks, cows, buffaloes, steers, heifers and calves, as well as the camel trade.
To protest against the Centre’s move a beef festival was organized on the campus. Over 80 students participated. The students then proceeded to eat beef which led to the attack. It is here that R. Sooraj was injured in his right eye and hospitalized.
Students had bread and beef curry and claimed that the event was to passively protest against the Centre's curb over selling cattle for slaughter in the market which would affect beef consumption.
Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan condemned the attack on Sooraj, “a Malayali PhD student”, for participating in the beef fest. A Facebook post from the chief minister’s office said: “It is unfortunate that a young man’s eye has been thrashed for merely eating beef. Our constitution gives us the right to consume whatever food we like to. Intolerance towards it is in fact intolerance towards our constitution itself. Will request the chief minister of Tamil Nadu to take necessary action in this incident.”
The students have said that the ban is “another declaration of war on the democratic rights of the people”. Many called it food fascism.
In Bengaluru, the police denied permission to hold a beef fest, titled “Mooment Bengaluru” whose organizers mainly included student wings of various organizations. The Students Federation of India (SFI) and Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) had organized the event opposite Town Hall in Bengaluru to protest against the ban of sale of cattle for slaughter.
Meanwhile, the Madras high court had granted a four-week stay on the central government’s ban on sale of cattle for slaughter. This followed a public interest litigation that had been filed.
Opposition parties in Tamil Nadu have also come together with a joint statement to condemn the Centre and press the state government to register its protest against the rule. Other states including Karnataka, Kerala, West Bengal, Puducherry and Tripura are also up in arms.
The opposition attack was led by West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who has threatened to defy the ban on sale of cows and buffaloes for slaughter. She seems hell bent to on moot for the cattle farmers and others dependent on the trade for a living.
The ban on sale of cows and buffaloes for slaughter through animal markets is expected to hurt millions of poor farmers and squeeze supplies to the country’s meat industry.
“It is unconstitutional, undemocratic and unethical,” Banerjee said, adding that the new rules had been decided “unilaterally” by the centre.
The Centre is under fire. Following protests, the Government is now willing to review and reconsider its decision.
This, say the opponents, will come as a relief for the buffalo meat export industry. The cattle trade ban, they argue could half the export of beef and also lead to job losses. The move, they argue, will crimp supplies to the country’s Rs 1-lakh crore meat and allied industries that source about 90% of their requirements from animal markets.
Farmers will also be hit because they will be deprived of a traditional source of income from selling non-milch and ageing cattle.
For the BJP the cow is an emotive issue. It found resonance in observations a High Court judge in a northern Indian state made wherein the spoke about the virtues of a cow.
While hearing a petition on the large-scale death of cows in a shelter in Jaipur he spoke about the virtues of the animal. While doing so he said that the cow should be declared a national animal and prescribed life-term for killing the animal.
If the BJP is looking at this from the point of reaping electoral benefit then it is not off the mark. The cow, even if in a limited way, has an appeal like the temple movement has had for the BJP. It put BJP in the forefront. So also with the cow that is expected to woo Hindus and touch a chord.
Besides, the curbs on cattle trade have the potential to alienate Muslims who dominate the Rs 100,000-crore meat business in India.
Therefore if non BJP parties are crying foul it fits in. Muslims are considered a key support base of Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress, the CPM and Congress. Banerjee wondered why the trade curbs were announced on May 23, just before the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
For the BJP it is a win win situation. BJP’s core theme that eating beef is against the ‘idea of India’ has wide appeal. Even in beef-eating states like Kerala, the cow is revered. Therefore, criticizing the BJP on the issue of cow slaughter may be counter productive.
What has also worked for the BJP is the video footage of Congress workers slaughtering a cow. The video has gone viral. Apart from showing up the Congress in a poor light, the video has hurt the Indian psyche.
With some state elections expected within months, the pro beef clamour will hurt the Opposition and electorally help the BJP. The saffron party is likely to shift focus from the sale ban to cow slaughter and whip up sentiment. With the majority population being Hindus the BJP expects to gain from the controversy particularly if it makes the cow the core issue. Everything else, in their view, will fall in place and help the BJP emerge as a party that apart from the India theme takes care of Bharat as well.
The writer is a senior Indian journalist, political commentator and columnist of The Independent.
http://www.theindependentbd.com/post/98881
Kumkum Chadha
When R. Sooraj was among those organizing the beef festival and actively participating in it, he had expected repercussions. But little had he anticipated that these would be so serious. His going against the holy cow nearly cost him his eye.The writer is a senior Indian journalist, political commentator and columnist of The Independent. She can be reached at: (kumkum91@gmail.com) Sooraj, was badly beaten up allegedly by some students protesting against the “beef fest” held on the campus. He was surrounded when he was having lunch and beaten black and blue. He sustained injuries including one on his eye.
A Ph.d scholar of IIT Madras, Sooraj is associated with the Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle. Those who attacked him claimed to be Sangh parivar supporters, according to Sooraj’s friends.
They said that the incident was part of a sustained campaign and students who had participated in the beef festival were threatened and targeted by right wing elements.
Discontent on the campus was brewing following the Centre’s controversial notification prohibiting the sale of cattle, including buffaloes, for slaughter at livestock markets.The new rules do not amount to a blanket ban on cattle trade or their slaughter, and license breeding remains legal.
The central regulation allows only farmland owners to trade at animal markets. It covers bulls, bullocks, cows, buffaloes, steers, heifers and calves, as well as the camel trade.
To protest against the Centre’s move a beef festival was organized on the campus. Over 80 students participated. The students then proceeded to eat beef which led to the attack. It is here that R. Sooraj was injured in his right eye and hospitalized.
Students had bread and beef curry and claimed that the event was to passively protest against the Centre's curb over selling cattle for slaughter in the market which would affect beef consumption.
Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan condemned the attack on Sooraj, “a Malayali PhD student”, for participating in the beef fest. A Facebook post from the chief minister’s office said: “It is unfortunate that a young man’s eye has been thrashed for merely eating beef. Our constitution gives us the right to consume whatever food we like to. Intolerance towards it is in fact intolerance towards our constitution itself. Will request the chief minister of Tamil Nadu to take necessary action in this incident.”
The students have said that the ban is “another declaration of war on the democratic rights of the people”. Many called it food fascism.
In Bengaluru, the police denied permission to hold a beef fest, titled “Mooment Bengaluru” whose organizers mainly included student wings of various organizations. The Students Federation of India (SFI) and Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) had organized the event opposite Town Hall in Bengaluru to protest against the ban of sale of cattle for slaughter.
Meanwhile, the Madras high court had granted a four-week stay on the central government’s ban on sale of cattle for slaughter. This followed a public interest litigation that had been filed.
Opposition parties in Tamil Nadu have also come together with a joint statement to condemn the Centre and press the state government to register its protest against the rule. Other states including Karnataka, Kerala, West Bengal, Puducherry and Tripura are also up in arms.
The opposition attack was led by West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who has threatened to defy the ban on sale of cows and buffaloes for slaughter. She seems hell bent to on moot for the cattle farmers and others dependent on the trade for a living.
The ban on sale of cows and buffaloes for slaughter through animal markets is expected to hurt millions of poor farmers and squeeze supplies to the country’s meat industry.
“It is unconstitutional, undemocratic and unethical,” Banerjee said, adding that the new rules had been decided “unilaterally” by the centre.
The Centre is under fire. Following protests, the Government is now willing to review and reconsider its decision.
This, say the opponents, will come as a relief for the buffalo meat export industry. The cattle trade ban, they argue could half the export of beef and also lead to job losses. The move, they argue, will crimp supplies to the country’s Rs 1-lakh crore meat and allied industries that source about 90% of their requirements from animal markets.
Farmers will also be hit because they will be deprived of a traditional source of income from selling non-milch and ageing cattle.
For the BJP the cow is an emotive issue. It found resonance in observations a High Court judge in a northern Indian state made wherein the spoke about the virtues of a cow.
While hearing a petition on the large-scale death of cows in a shelter in Jaipur he spoke about the virtues of the animal. While doing so he said that the cow should be declared a national animal and prescribed life-term for killing the animal.
If the BJP is looking at this from the point of reaping electoral benefit then it is not off the mark. The cow, even if in a limited way, has an appeal like the temple movement has had for the BJP. It put BJP in the forefront. So also with the cow that is expected to woo Hindus and touch a chord.
Besides, the curbs on cattle trade have the potential to alienate Muslims who dominate the Rs 100,000-crore meat business in India.
Therefore if non BJP parties are crying foul it fits in. Muslims are considered a key support base of Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress, the CPM and Congress. Banerjee wondered why the trade curbs were announced on May 23, just before the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
For the BJP it is a win win situation. BJP’s core theme that eating beef is against the ‘idea of India’ has wide appeal. Even in beef-eating states like Kerala, the cow is revered. Therefore, criticizing the BJP on the issue of cow slaughter may be counter productive.
What has also worked for the BJP is the video footage of Congress workers slaughtering a cow. The video has gone viral. Apart from showing up the Congress in a poor light, the video has hurt the Indian psyche.
With some state elections expected within months, the pro beef clamour will hurt the Opposition and electorally help the BJP. The saffron party is likely to shift focus from the sale ban to cow slaughter and whip up sentiment. With the majority population being Hindus the BJP expects to gain from the controversy particularly if it makes the cow the core issue. Everything else, in their view, will fall in place and help the BJP emerge as a party that apart from the India theme takes care of Bharat as well.
The writer is a senior Indian journalist, political commentator and columnist of The Independent.
http://www.theindependentbd.com/post/98881
