The height of religious goondaism was depicted in Bisada village of Greater Noida in UP when a Muslim man was lynched by a mob, incited through an announcement made through loudspeakers mounted on the temple top, that a ‘holy’ cow was slaughtered by him and that the meat was stored in his house. That apart the man’s son was brutally beaten up and is fighting for his life in the hospital, and the house was completely ransacked.
Worse is, instead of condemning the attack in one voice, various diehard leaders in the BJP cadre are making all sorts of statements, some saying that the incident was an accident whereas someone else referring to the cow as the mother, justifying that when the mother is cut into bits such reaction is bound to happen. Strikingly, such people are keener in stressing on the killing of the cow, an animal, but not on the brutal murder of the man.
The fundamental question is even if cow slaughter is banned in UP, like in some other states, was it right on the part of the impassioned mob to kill a person? The matter could have been reported to the authorities and action taken as per law. What is seen from this episode is that in India, the land of founding of many religions of the world, the cow is of greater worth than the human life. It is a matter of great concern and incidents of such sort are bound to create disharmony between communities and insecurity among the minorities.
Though issues like animal slaughter come under the directive principles of state policy, it is better that the government comes out with a clear cut law at the national level on the slaughter of cattle and selling, storing and eating of beef.
It is strange that on one hand we impose restrictions on man’s eating habits and at the same time the export of beef is permitted in UP as it is a multi-billion dollar business.
It is fitting to state that though it is glorified that Hindus do not eat beef, there are communities like Dalits and tribals who ravish on this meat. Besides there are Hindus who themselves assert that they consume beef and claim that even their ancient scriptures establish that in those days even the upper caste Hindus ate beef. So it is best for the NDA not to intrude in the personal choice of a person but endorse his freedom to eat what he/she deems fit.
