DNA Edit: Slaughter politics

What, one feels obliged to ask, was the message that Kerala Youth Congress workers wanted to get across by slaughtering a calf in front of a huge crowd in Kannur? If the point was to flex political muscle against the BJP, it was, anyway, exceedingly clear from the beef fests that are being organised across the state. But zeal — as Congress workers have proved — is not an easy emotion to contain. As though, holding a beef fest wasn’t a strong-enough message, slaughtering a calf in full public view became necessary to deliver the apt degree of offence.

What’s truly shameful is that a living being was sacrificed to serve the purpose of political tokenism, not to provide sustenance and nutrition. One need not see this event from the lens of Hinduism alone.

No religion condones such gratuitous violence. The barbaric slaughtering of the calf has been a political embarrassment for the Congress. Its Vice-President Rahul Gandhi, in a last-ditch effort, also sought to distance himself from the incident, calling it “thoughtless, barbaric and completely unacceptable to me and the Congress party”.

This is a necessary move, but of the kind that many former voters can see through. Offending the cow, in any form, is akin to insulting religious sentiments of a majority of people in the Hindi heartland. This is the very electorate that holds the key to 2019 for the Congress, and it can ill-afford presenting itself as a party that was in any manner involved in the cruel slaying.

Gandhi’s condemnation of the incident is a damage-control measure, as pundits within the Congress party very well understand the electoral toll of being perceived as a party that implicitly condones, if not actively encourages, cow slaughter. What is really incredible, though, is the Congress’s inept handling of the gamut of cow politics issues.

Undeniably, fringe Hindutva elements have been taking the law into their hands, doling out vigilante justice as judge, jury, and executioner. Cornering the Centre over such issues should come naturally to a national party but Congress, and its weak leadership, can’t seem to cut any ice. Another development — the recent notification issued by the environment ministry putting a ban on the sale and purchase of cattle — will bring the buffalo meat export industry to a standstill, not to mention that the access to cheap meat, as a source of protein, of millions of Indians will be hit. But once again instead of trapping the Centre and holding it accountable to a series of gruesome crimes, the Congress can’t seem to stop tripping over itself.