#dnaEdit: Tying themselves in knots

The opposing views aired by the ministers of state for minority affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and home affairs Kiren Rijiju on beef-eating point to the diversity of this country and the onus this places on the NDA government to focus on issues of governance rather than interfering with the food choices of citizens. Rijiju’s views highlight the difficulty of imposing a beef ban in the North-East, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala and Tamil Nadu where it is part of the staple diet of the people. It also reveals the lack of unanimity among the regional leaders of the BJP on this issue. Naqvi had said that “those who are dying without eating beef, can go to Pakistan or Arab countries or any other part of the world where it is available”. Speaking in Mizoram, Rijiju termed his colleague’s statements “unpalatable”, while admitting he ate beef and hailed from Arunachal Pradesh where no one could stop him from doing so.

Interestingly, Rijiju has arrived at his proposition from the point of view of majority sentiment; not too different from the position staked out by Naqvi. Naqvi had professed that beef-eating is an “issue of faith and belief and is a sensitive issue for the Hindus”. According to The Indian Express, Rijiju said: “If Maharashtra is Hindu majority, or if Gujarat is Hindu majority, Madhya Pradesh is Hindu majority, if they are to make laws which are conducive to the Hindu faith, let them be. But in our place, in our state where we are majority, where we feel whatever steps we take, you know, laws which are conducive to our beliefs, it should be. So they also should not have a problem with the way we live, and we also should not have a problem with the way they live.” Where the BJP will find it difficult to counter Rijiju’s views is that he is cleverly speaking the language of majoritarianism which BJP leaders like Union home minister Rajnath Singh have espoused while demanding a nationwide beef ban.

Rijiju, instead, posits the idea of majorities at a regional level to argue against a national majority or majorities from specific regions imposing their will on other regions. But this obsession with majority opinion and solely factoring in the majority opinion ignores the existence of minorities in every part of this diverse country, their rights, and their cultural traits. For example, most of the states of the North-East whose beef-eating habit was defended by Rijiju, are witnessing attacks against Bengali and Assamese migrants, a xenophobia which has ethnic, cultural, and even religious dimensions. What is interesting about Rijiju’s views is that it pits him directly against his senior in the home ministry, Rajnath Singh, who has been the most vocal advocate of beef ban in the central government despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi maintaining a studied silence on the issue.

With the media playing up his statements, Rijiju has now issued a clarification which essentially restates the position he espoused at Aizawl. He need not have been so defensive because a leading light in the government, finance minister Arun Jaitley, has already disapproved of Naqvi’s remarks. Jaitley said that government policies are not influenced by such statements and called on Naqvi to “realise his responsibilities”. Jaitley also evoked PM Modi’s advice to his ministers to refrain from making controversial statements. If Naqvi was trying to curry favour with hard-line elements, this was clearly not the time to do it. As a minister in the government and the Muslim face of the party, Naqvi would do well to intervene more energetically in the problems facing minorities rather than making polarising statements about beef-eating.