Ban on beef

decisive[di'sI-siv(crucial,निर्णायक)] defeat of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s communal and caste politics in Bihar will mean an end to its vicious[vi-shus(brutal,cruel,क्रूर,निंदनीय)] campaign against cow slaughter.

Farmers, mainly Hindus, sell unproductive cattle to contractors. A blanket ban on slaughter means the farmer will have to pay for their upkeep which, at current prices, would amount to around Rs. 100 a day or Rs. 36,500 a year. Can farmers in the grip of an acute[u'kyoot(sharp,तीक्ष्ण)] agrarian crisis afford this expense? Will the government give them a cattle subsidy? According to the cattle census, already there are 53 lakh stray cattle abandoned[u'ban-dund(left,त्यागना)] by their owners.

Narendra Modi’s aggression against the so-called pink revolution, the bizarre[bi'zaa(unusual,अजीब)] description of “rampant[ram-punt(uncontrolled,अनियंत्रित)] slaughter of cows”, is falsely premised. He has deliberately concealed[kun'seeld(hidden,छिपाना)] the fact that it is not cows but the meat of buffaloes and unproductive cattle that is mainly used for consumption and exports. As far as the cow is concerned, the 2012 cattle census shows that “the Female Cattle (Cows) Population has increased by 6.52 per cent over the previous census (2007) and the total number of female cattle in 2012 is 122.9 million numbers.” This hardly points to rampant slaughter of cows.

The hate campaign further says Muslims eat beef to deliberately insult Hindu sentiment. Lalu Prasad may have thought it politically prudent[proo-d(u)nt(wise,समझदारी)] to withdraw his statement on Hindus eating beef, but he spoke the truth. The National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) estimated in 2011-12 that 5.2 crore people in the country eat beef/buffalo meat. Earlier, the National Commission on Cattle, set up by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government in 2002 to promote a ban on cow slaughter, also reluctantly[ri'lúk-tunt-lee(unwilling,अनिच्छा)] admitted in a report (para 167) that “extreme poverty and customary practices in the coastal areas and among some sections of scheduled tribes, scheduled castes and other backward castes also make them beef eaters.”
what angers the Sangh Parivar is that many States differentiate between useful and useless cattle in their laws. Once a cow or bull or bullock has crossed a certain age and can neither produce milk nor be useful in any agricultural work, such cattle can be slaughtered provided the authority concerned gives a “fit for slaughter” certificate.

Such laws are not peculiar[pi'kyoo-lee-u(strange,अजीब)] to India. In the Punjab province of Pakistan there are strict regulations against the slaughter of milch animals and draught animals.
But in India, the Hindutva forces, from the time of the Constituent Assembly, do not accept an economic basis for the argument. it was Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar who led the opposition to the demand made for a national ban on cow slaughter.

Dr. Ambedkar’s scathing[skey-dhing(critical,आलोचनापूर्ण)] criticism of the caste system and the Brahminical order contained an analysis of the grounds for untouchability practised against Dalits, one of which was consumption of the meat of dead cattle.
In the face of strongly divided opinion in the Constituent Assembly, Dr. Ambedkar worked out a compromise for the inclusion of Article 48 in the Directive Principles rather than in the text of the Constitution.

Article 48 states: “The State shall endeavour[in'de-vu(effort,प्रयास)] to organise agriculture and animal husbandry on modern and scientific lines and shall in particular take steps for preserving and improving the breeds and prohibiting slaughter of cows and calves and other milch and draught cattle.”

The Hindutva right wing wants to reverse the Dr. Ambedkar formula, impose a total national ban by removing the “fit for slaughter” provisions, and link it with a ban on the consumption of beef.

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