India
Are you outraged by the beef ban in Maharashatra?
Updated : Mar 05, 2015, 02:42 PM IST
Are you upset that you will have to do without your favourite steak? Well, here's news for you, you were not eating beef anyway.
Cow slaughter was already banned in Maharashtra under the Maharashtra Animal Preservation Act (MAPA) of 1976 and chances are that what you were dedicatedly chomping on thinking it was beef was actually not. The new ban on cow slaughter is just an extended prohibition which also covers the killing of calves, bulls and bullocks. Calves, till now, could be slaughtered after acquiring the 'Fit for Slaughter' certificate from certain civic authorities.
While answering to a news website, Riyaaz Amlani, head of National Restaurant Association of India, said that no restaurants that he knows of in Mumbai serves cow or bullock meat. What we eat in the guise of cow beef is actually Buffalo meat. He said, "We've been eating buffalo meat for a lot of time and we (restaurants) have been only serving buffalo meat." The new ban allows the slaughter of buffaloes whose meat is called carabeef which is generally seen as an inferior quality meat that constitutes 25% of the total beef market in the state.
So, the new ban does not affect your customary plate of steak you get in the state restaurants anyway. The ban, which received the assent of President Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday, however, created a furore over the social media among the red meat lovers of the state. People and various Bollywood celebrities took to Twitter and Facebook to voice their outrage and disappointment over the decision calling it 'communal politics'.
I am a vegetarian. And banning beef is communal politics.
— RichaChadha (@RichaChadha_) March 3, 2015
So now in Maharashtra you can have a beef with someone but you can't have beef with someone.
— Farhan Akhtar (@FarOutAkhtar) March 3, 2015
It'd be amazing, if M'tra govt. showed the same urgency in tending to real problems such as water & power, as they have for the #BeefBan
— VISHAL DADLANI (@VishalDadlani) March 3, 2015
while we're on the topic of banning food... lauki really hurts my religious sentiments. #banlauki
— sreeti mukerji (@sreetimukerji) March 3, 2015
In Maharashtra, all chicken, goats and sheep are currently thinking - Why do gais have all the fun? #BeefBan
— Ramesh Srivats (@rameshsrivats) March 3, 2015
Do not be surprised if the cows are given voting rights in the next election. #BeefBan
— Shirish Kunder (@ShirishKunder) March 3, 2015
The President gave his assent to the Maharashtra Animal Preservation (Amendment) Bill, 1995,almost 19 years after the Maharashtra Assembly passed the Bill during the BJP-Shiv Sena rule in 1995. The law punishes any person found to be selling or in possession of beef with 5 years of imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 10,000.
However, dear readers, have some heart, your regular (cara)beef will continue to be on your plates!
Also Read: Maharashtra bans cow slaughter; 5 years jail for possession or sale of beef