Leader of India’s Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) and Gujrat Chief Minister Vijay Ruapni has said cow slaughtering and transporting beef will soon be punishable by a life sentence, The Guardian reported.
The government is set to introduce a bill in the coming week to extend the punishment for butchering cows. The current punishment for slaughtering a cow is INR50,000 and up to seven years imprisonment.
“We want to make this law stricter.” Rupani said, whose party has long been advocating strict punishment for cow slaughter in India.
“In the bill, we will make a provision wherein people found involved in cow-slaughtering as well as transportation of beef will be punished with life imprisonment. Their vehicles too will be seized permanently.”
Since Narendra Modi became the prime minister, scores of Indian states have been intensifying the punishment for butchering cows. The Gujrat chief minister was elected on the manifesto which campaigned for outlawing slaughter of the holy animal.
At present, only eight of 29 states in India allow beef consumption.
With the support of right-wing rhetoric in India, gangs of self-proclaimed “cow protectors” now roam around in northern India and are accused of fanning religiously-motivated violence against Muslims and other cow-eating communities.The Haryana government has dismissed reports that capital punishment would be awarded for cow slaughter in State, though imprisonment of up to 10 years will be imposed.
Animal Husbandry Minister Om Prakash Dhankar clarified on Saturday that capital punishment was not on the cards. The government would bring the Gauvansh Sanrakshan and Gausamvardhan Bill, 2015, in the current session of the Assembly. “Laws across the country were studied for drafting this Bill. Ours would be a more stringent law than those of most other States and would provide a provision for 10 years’ imprisonment for cow slaughter,” he said.
Besides, the Minister said, sale of beef across Haryana would be banned. “Even sale of canned beef, which was allowed by the previous Congress government, would be banned,” he said. Vehicles used to transport cattle for slaughter or beef would be impounded.
The move is likely to affect the livelihood of a large number of people depending on butchery, especially in the minority-dominated Mewat district, for a livelihood and the cuisine and services of five-star hotels.
Announcing the coming ban on Friday, Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij said it would help protect cows. “Since cows represent a strong identity of our ancient culture, it is the duty of every single person to protect them,” he said.
Mr. Dhankar too said the idea behind the Bill was to protest and preserve cattle in the State. The government would also try to increase the milk output.
There were 18 lakh cows in homes and three lakh in gaushalas, besides 1.5 lakh stray cattle. Land was being identified for cattle shelters, and the government was planning to have most of them in the districts adjoining Rajasthan.
The Governor’s Address to the Assembly made clear the government’s intent to bring in legislation to protect cows, saying that “gaudhan” (cow wealth) was central to India’s great civilisation from the ancient Vedic times.
Haryana Education Minister Ram Bilas Sharma had observed that it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream to provide proper protection and care to cows. Mr. Sharma said that before the elections, the BJP had promised to ban slaughter of cow and sale of beef.One of India’s greatest problems is that of the sacred cow. But, unlike other Indian problems, it is a relatively easy one to solve.
In India there are 360,000,000 people, 200,000,000 cattle, and only 300,000,000 acres of arable land. Cow and man compete for life although the Indian cow is almost worthless. She calves perhaps two years later than any other cow, her yearly milk yield is that of an English cow’s weekly average. But the cow is sacred.
Gandhi once succeeded in having an ailing calf put to death in one of his Ashrams and there was nearly a riot. The law prohibits the slaughtering of cows unless they are more than fourteen years of age and in a number of states cow slaughter is completely banned. Mr Nehru once said in anger that the Hindu way of destruction was worship and he took the cow as his example.
Ailing cows are not killed, they are starved to death: healthy cows have to starve or feed on rubbish. Bullocks, not so sacred, are fed because India has too many cows and not enough bullocks.
The bullock requirement is dependent on the number of holdings and of the pulling power of the animal. In Madras it is usual to see nine pairs pulling one plough; each bullock is as small as a donkey. “Kill them off. Export their hides and bones. Get rid of them. Improve the economy.” This is the advice outsiders are generous with. This may be the answer but there are economic and religious obstacles. Indians will mention the economic factor to defend their apathy to the cow problem but never except with the deepest shyness the religious issues. Yet the latter is the only valid and real obstacle and also the one which carries the solution within itself. The cow is sacred.
There is nothing wrong in cow-worship; it is not idolatry or animalism or savagery. Cow-worship in India is a very gentle and beautiful symbol of interdependence of man and beast. It ranges from kindness to animals to fertility and teamwork on the soil properly exploited this attitude of the peasant to his beast would bring the solution of the cattle problem which is one of over-population and under-production. Trust the peasant to look after his interests once he knows where they lie, then he will follow no fancy, only factual economics.
One of the first sentences the Indian child has to spell out in his primer is “The cow is our mother, she gives us us milk, bullocks, dung.” Nowhere does it say what is her due. Proper instructions should be added on how to look after the cow, she should be fed as a bullock and then she would give more milk and the peasants would keep fewer cows. Gandhi had been carrying out an experiment in southern India for some time before his death on the effect of ploughing on the health of the cow, but new leadership in that field is not forthcoming. In Uttar Pradesh, however, where the local deer was called “nilgai” (blue cow) and ate crops with immunity, its name has been changed by deed poll to “nil ghora” (blue horse) and the villagers are killing them off as fast as they breed.
