In the New Year 2018, the tourism season in Goa is still at its peak. It is also festive season and wedding time. This tiny state requires about 2400 kilos of beef daily. The beef is consumed mostly by the minority sections. And here comes the bad news. The beef traders have downed their shutters, due to them being harassed by the police at the instance of ‘Gau Raksha Abhiyaan’ which have been targeting beef traders for a long time. We all thought Goa was safe from the cow-vigilantes, Goa depended on the beef from Karnataka. That state shall go to the polls in a few months from now. The new icon of Indian politics, a mahant of a Mutt in Uttar Pradesh who happens to double up as CM of that state has called upon the Congress Chief Minister to prove his ‘Hindu’ credentials by banning cow slaughter.
The mahant claimed that Karnataka was a land of Bhajarangabali Hanuman who helped Lord Ram and Sita and remarked that it was time for BJP government again in the land visited by Lord Ram. Does anybody have doubts over the basis on which he is seeking votes?
The country still debates whether the fringe reinforces the mainstream or the mainstream nurtures the fringe. We thought Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti and Sakashi Maharaj constitute the fringe with the PM concerned with economic reforms. We were prepared to give benefit of doubt to the PM when he spoke about Pink Revolution (beef sale and export) before 2014 elections or raised the issue of Kabrastan in UP and electricity at Eid time or lack of it at Diwali time. After drawing Pakistan into the last phase of Gujarat elections, it is clear that there is method in the madness.
The cow always had a special place in Hindu thought, while the butchers came from the minority Muslim community who killed cows for food, trade and as a part of their religious ceremonies. The cow slaughter had long standing political ramification and the Hindu revivalists had always dreamt that the cow slaughter would be done away with independence. What an opportune time they got to place cow slaughter ban in the constitution, at a time when the deliberations over the constitution were infected with communal frenzy with riots everywhere and the refugee avalanche. Though Nehru declared ‘as long as I am on the helm of affairs, India will not become a Hindu state’, the cow protection provision was a clear concession to deal with explosive situation created through sedulous propaganda by the revivalists.
There could never be a quarrel on need to modernise agriculture but placing prohibition of slaughter of cows and cubs in the constitution was certainly unwarranted, being a sectarian move pandering to the revivalists’ idea. The Hon’ble Supreme court upheld the slaughter of cows and cubs and those animals capable of being milch or being used as draught cattle i.e. an economic argument was used to clothe religious aspects and sentiments. It did not appeal to many constitutional thinkers. Former chief Justice P.B. Gajendragadkar was clear that the ban on slaughter of cows and their progeny would be inconsistent with the concept of secularism. He tells us ‘the ban amounts to converting the secular democracy of India into a theocratic state’.
The upholding of the cow slaughter ban by the Supreme Court in the sixties and thereafter in the year 2005 has provided the fringe (and now mainstream!) an impetus to create a shameful story on consumption, storage and transportation of beef fermenting communal hatred. Cow vigilantism and cow related hate crimes peaked in 2017 with the RSS chief demanding national cow protection laws and not to forget a high court judge ruling that the cow should be declared a national animal. Mohammed Aklaque and Pelhu Khan got lynched in full public view at the hands of cow vigilantes. Cow and cow protection is seen as a great unifier of the majority community at election time.
With the Gujarat elections over and the heralding of the New Year, it was felt that the past is behind us. But the Karnataka elections seem to bring a cow back on the table! Remember Karnataka has given us a central minister Anant Kumar Hegde who thundered ‘we are here to change the constitution’.
A 2004 study by three political scientists of the Yale University claims that Hindu Muslims riots strengthen “ethno religious parties at the cost of of multi-ethic ones like the Congress”. (The Muzaffarnagar riots before 2014 elections brought a bounty of 73 seats). The controversy over film Padmavati and the outrageous comments that Taj Mahal is a blot on India’s History amidst the cow vigilantism provided a fertile ground for the Gujarat elections. With elections round the corner in Karnataka the controversy over Tipu Sultan and the new controversy over cow slaughter created by the Mahant lays firm foundations for a polarised polity atmosphere as the ruling party harvest rich dividends.
The constitution framers who allowed a non-enforceable provision in the constitution on cow slaughter may not have realised the latent mischief of such a provision. The believers of pluralistic and secular society may have never dreamt that the idea of India could be endangered by its misuse and of course who would think that the fringe would become mainstream?
In 1957 Nehru had declared ‘so far as I am concerned I am prepared to lose every election in India but to give no quarter to communalism or casteisim’. Times are different now. Elections are won by creating divisions in society. That is this country’s tragedy and people’s misery.
(The writer is practicing advocate, senior faculty in law and political analyst)
