#dnaEdit: Watch your plate

Union home minister Rajnath Singh’s backing for a nationwide ban on cow slaughter escalates the rhetoric to unacceptable proportions. In Maharashtra and Haryana, cow slaughter was already banned on religious grounds, but tougher legislations were ushered in to incriminate the slaughter of buffaloes and bullocks too. It needs to be suspected then that the long-term goal is to foist vegetarianism on the people. Some states already have comprehensive cow slaughter bans, while many others require “fit for slaughter” certificates for ageing cattle. But extending bans to the entire country will have to overcome the opposition of significant numbers of individuals and communities who eat beef routinely and have done so for centuries. Beef dishes are a favourite in the North-East and Kerala, among Muslims, Christians, and many Dalits. The State intervening in food, clothing, or lifestyle choices is not just undesirable; it is also tantamount to violating the fundamental right to free speech and expression of its citizens. After Maharashtra introduced five-year imprisonment for possessing and eating beef, Haryana upped the ante, imposing a stiff 10-year jail term. Now, if Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan will have his way, the offence could be treated akin to murder.

As these statutory changes and public pronouncements show, the Hindutva project is steadily advancing. More worryingly, the path of consensus, broached by an early proponent of cow slaughter ban, Mahatma Gandhi, to wean away beef-eaters, has not even figured in the discourse of the BJP politicians pushing this agenda. Can those winning elections and capturing State power be endowed with unbridled powers? Several standoffs — when the judiciary pushed back against land reforms and unfettered power to amend the Constitution or the Mandal agitation — have erupted when the executive and legislature’s prerogative over lawmaking were vigorously resisted by other stakeholders. The Supreme Court has upheld the constitutional validity of the ban on cow slaughter. Except for the Left parties, the political opposition is yet to take a firm or principled stance on this issue. While Congress leader PC Chacko advised Rajnath to generate consensus, another Congressman Digvijaya Singh supported the cow slaughter ban, reflecting the confusion in the main opposition party with regard to apparent anti-Hindu postures. Digvijaya even poured scorn over Prime Minister Narendra Modi meeting the head of Cargill, a leading meat-processing company, and dubbed the Sangh Parivar’s rhetoric on cow protection as political opportunism over religious sentiments.

In April last year, Modi, then PM candidate, had accused the UPA government of ushering in a “pink revolution” by promoting abattoirs, cow slaughter and meat exports. Since then, Modi, the pragmatist, has not broached the topic. From April to November 2014, meat exports, 97 per cent of it buffalo meat, showed a spike, rising to $3.3 billlion in April-November 2014, compared to $2.8 billion in the corresponding period in 2013. For a government, gung-ho about economic growth, this is indeed good news. If it is not careful, the BJP might actually find that its political motives could cause an economic downturn. Among farmers and environmentalists, there is a section that warns that ageing cattle pose a threat to depleting pastoral resources. As grazing land shrinks, it is estimated that India faces a net deficit of 61.1% green fodder, 21.9% of dry crop residues, and 64% feeds. Announcing stiff penal provisions against beef-eating, when crimes against humans like sexual offences and violent assaults are going unpunished in the country, is rich in irony and farce. It is also scary.