Nitin Tarode wants to sell his old bull to help pay for his sister’s wedding, after his income was hit by patchy rainfall. But he has struggled to find a buyer who will pay a decent price because of a ban on slaughtering cows, bulls and bullocks in Maharashtra, the western state run by Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist party.
“Now I will have to take a loan for my sister’s wedding,” says Tarode, the oldest of five siblings and the only earning member of his family in Akola, nearly 370 miles from Mumbai.
A renewed thrust by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party to protect cows, worshipped by Hindus, has closed abbatoirs in Maharashtra, making it hard for farmers to sell their animals, and restrictions are spreading to other states.
Even lions, tigers and leopards in Mumbai’s national park are being fed chicken and mutton rather than their usual beef because the city’s main abattoir has been shut for the past two weeks.
Maharashtra, India’s second most populous state, extended a ban on the slaughter of cattle this month and other BJP-led states such as Jharkhand and Haryana have also tightened restrictions on trading beef.
Critics say tougher anti-beef laws discriminate against Muslims, Christians and lower-caste Hindus, who rely on the cheap meat for protein, and fear they could pave the way to a nationwide ban that would threaten thousands of jobs.
Several thousand, mainly from the Muslim community, will be rendered jobless in the beef trade and related industries like leather goods, leaders of the business community say.
“My business is ruined. Farmers are offering cattle at much lower prices but I can’t buy because slaughtering is illegal now,” said Asif Qureshi, a cattle supplier based in Baramati, Maharashtra.
Slaughterhouses in Maharashtra are now refusing to slaughter buffalo in protest against the ban, cutting off all beef supplies in a bid to put pressure on the government. Hindus do not consider buffalo to be sacred.
Not all BJP-led states are pushing for tighter restrictions on beef. The chief minister of Goa has refused to back the ban, saying that around 40% of people there eat beef and he respected the rights of minorities.
Meanwhile, Hindu nationalist groups affiliated to the BJP want to set up more cattle camps and cow shelters to house animals no longer wanted by farmers.
India has some 300m cattle, and cows foraging for food are a familiar sight on the rubbish-strewn streets of towns and villages. Their numbers could swell by 200,000 in Maharashtra alone as farmers abandon animals they cannot sell, according to the beef trade.
Indian beef ban will cost jobs and harm economy, warn critics | World news | The Guardian
............. that is what we must all Worship.
