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Imminent rollback of ban on sale of cattle for slaughter shows criticism works

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DailyBiteNov 30, 2017 | 15:26

Imminent rollback of ban on sale of cattle for slaughter shows criticism works

The legislation saddled farmers with infirm cattle which they were unable to dispose of.

In a whiff of possible relief to millions of Indian farmers, the "Centre has decided to withdraw its controversial plan of notifying a ban on sale of cattle for slaughter in animal markets," reported The Indian Express, quoting a senior official from the Union ministry of environment and forests.

The notification, which came in May this year, was subjected to heavy criticism from farmers, saddled with infirm cattle which they were unable to dispose of, as well as from commentators and data journalists, who did painstaking work to expose the misguided nature of the legislation that could have thrown the agricultural sector under the bus.

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The Indian Express report says that the MoEF has sent a file to the law ministry, stating that it is withdrawing the notification due to "several issues", but will be "revising it", without giving an exact timeframe.

The ban had affected revenue and job-generating industries such as leather. Photo: Reuters/File
The ban had affected revenue and job-generating industries such as leather. Photo: Reuters/File

The May 26 gazetted notification piggybacked on the Prevention of Cruelty Against Animals Act, 1960, to prohibit sale of cattle in animal markets within 50kms of the international border and 25kms of the state borders, thus inviting the sobriquet "cow bureaucracy". The legislation, ideologically motivated and misguided to the core, struck at the heart of Indian agricultural sector, with farmers now unable to sell old and infirm animals.

In addition, allied industries such as meat and leather, which depended on cattle slaughter, also suffered tremendously and were staring at potential loss worth lakhs of crores of rupees, until the Madras High Court stayed the ban, and was subsequently supported by the Supreme Court, thereby bringing this anti-minority and anti-farmer legislative juggernaut to a halt.

'Illegal and senseless'

It is for this reason that civil rights advocate and senior lawyer Aravind Datar called the legislation "illegal and senseless", saying it had no basis in the Constitution, because it directly hampered the right to life, liberty and was a misinterpretation of the guidelines laid down.

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The complex regulatory restrictions in individual states mostly came to fore in the north of India, the purported "cow belt", and had little impact in states where beef was consumed widely, such as those in the Northeast, or states such as Goa, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and even West Bengal.

Datar observed: "A total ban on all types of cattle in the latest notification is likely to be held as unconstitutional. It is difficult to comprehend how anyone could have drafted such a notification imposing a total ban in the teeth of a line of Supreme Court decisions from 1959. Or is it another attempt to draft a patently unconstitutional but politically convenient law and leave it to the courts to strike it down? And why is it senseless?"

"First, there is no justification, economic or other, for this total ban. What are the commercial consequences of such a ban? How would it impact the livelihood of lakhs of butchers? What would be the impact on our huge beef exports? What would it do to the leather trade? Such a drastic decision should have at least required a detailed investigation into the possible impact on all the stakeholders."

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Crippling economy

While the government then said in court that it would revise its notification, the latest development, of the Centre hinting at full-fledged rollback without a proper timeframe, nevertheless is a shot in the arm of sustained criticism of this legislation that had cow politics informing economics and policy to devastating ends.

As reported in a number of reputed publications, the anti-abattoir drive in BJP-ruled states such as Uttar Pradesh had the potential to cripple revenue and job-generating sectors, including India's meat, leather and livestock industries. This also impacted the informal sector and the small trader, farmer with tiny land holdings as well as the village-level entrepreneur dealing directly with the rural population the most.

While livestock markets from where traders purchased cattle, including calves, bulls, oxen, cows, buffaloes, among others, registered almost no business, the clause of "cruelty" was hammered in to showcase a vulgar anti-minority politics, supplemented by fake WhatsApp messages that used photoshopped images of cow slaughter and stirred the communal pot.

In a number of reports that followed, it was proved that cow vigilantism was getting legislative legroom and several instances of lynchings, violence, cattle kidnapping against Muslims and sometimes Dalits, were drawing their legitimacy from the cattle trade restrictions.

The ban has affected meat trade in various parts of India. Photo: PTI/File
The ban has affected meat trade in various parts of India. Photo: PTI/File

Many of these incidents of violence, such as those against Pehlu Khan in Alwar, Junaid Khan on a Delhi-Mathura train, were directly or indirectly related to cattle transportation or rumours of beef being consumed. In addition, a recent Reuters report showed how livelihoods of Muslims were being forcibly taken away when their cattle would be confiscated by vigilantes, and would be given away to gaushalas run by Hindus, in an organised manner, thus pointing towards what can only be called "economic terrorism".

While the Prime Minister kept pushing the artificial distinction between "good gau rakshaks" and "bad gau rakshaks", the situation on the ground was pointing towards cartelisation of the cattle trade, snatching it from the minorities to give it away to members of the majority community.

Legitimising vigilantism

This lumpenism was complemented by letting the alleged killers of Pehlu Khan go scot-free, even though their faces were caught in the video clip circulated on social media, in which the 50-year-old Khan was shown being beaten mercilessly, along with his son and associate.

The Hindu driver was let off, showing this to be a targeted attack on a member of the minority community, a dairy farmer with all the legal documentation, but who came under the crosshairs of organised cow vigiliantism.

The incompetence of the government functionaries and the ministers was driven home with Rajasthan home minister Gulab Chand Kataria saying those transporting cows were as much to blame as the vigilantes, blurring the distinction between the criminals and the victims.

A legislation that restricted cattle trade in such a way that belied its Hindutva kernel also had repercussions and belated legitimacy attribution to the rising cow-related attacks, one every week in 2017, according to data journalism portal, IndiaSpend.

According to IndiaSpend: "Created through a collection and content analysis of reports in the English media, the database shows that 97 per cent (73 of 75) of such incidents were reported after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government came to power in May 2014. The data show that Muslims were the target of 56 per cent (42 of 75) cases of violence centred on bovine issues over nearly eight years (2010 to 2017) and comprised 86 per cent (24 of 28) killed in 75 incidents. More than half or 53 per cent of the cow-related violence -40 of 75 cases- were from states governed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), when the attacks were reported, revealed our analysis of violence recorded until August 18, 2017."

Rollback shows criticism works

With all the reports on economic consequences, rise in cow-driven hate crimes, stealing of minority livelihoods, the setbacks to farmers being assiduously and continuously published in various alternative as well as mainstream media platforms, the backlash against the legislation was staggering.

Add to it the embarrassing bad press in foreign media, particularly The New York Times, Reuters, BBC and the The Washington Post, at a time when the NDA government is bargaining hard for India to be perceived as a global entrepreneurial hub. The contrast was too stark for even the BJP government in the Centre to ignore for long.

However, that there's no time-frame indicated to withdraw the legislation, which is under judicial stay, means the issue will be milked until the crucial election season is over. Though cow economics has trumped cow politics after sustained criticism of the government, there's much work to be done to control the ideological steering wheel driving bad decisions in India at present.

Last updated: November 30, 2017 | 15:26
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