But Modi also rose to power as Hindu nationalist, and since his election a year ago hard-line Hindus have been demanding that India ban the sale of beef – a key industry within India’s poor, minority Muslim community.
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Cows are revered by the Hindu majority, a belief a few right-wing elements have used to justify mob attacks – and even murder – of people suspected of slaughter or consumption.
Taming RSS is not easy for BJP.
It is deeply alarming that close on the heels of the lynching of a Muslim on suspicion that he was eating and storing beef in his house in Dadri, a riot-like situation has occurred in Mainpuri town of Uttar Pradesh where a riotous mob chased down and almost lynched four men accused of killing and skinning a cow. Interestingly, Bharuch is the same district which has been long known as the nursery of Wahabism and where on the eve of the February, 2002 Godhra train burning (that killed 59 Hindus), dozens of cows were openly slaughtered in the district’s Tankara village and the beef was sold openly in complete violation of not just the Hindu sentiment but the anti-slaughter law itself.
Communal violence is never far from the surface in places like West Bengal.
But this is just one side of the story and one that highlights only the prevention aspect. Among his many problems of winning over the whole country, the fracas over cow slaughter should be the least priority.
The truth is that Hindus have been eating beef long before Muslims arrived here. Indeed, they represent the country’s ethos.
The Dadri incident may be at one level a pure law and order predicament for the Indian government, but at a higher level, it has unfurled for the BJP government the basic issues of secularism and non-discrimination of Indians across religious affiliations, the values which the Indian constitution stands for.
Looking at incidents, UP’s share of the total is 18%, 30% and 20%, in these three years respectively.
This statistical exercise reveals that as noted UP is slightly above average in 2012, 2014 but a huge outlier in 2013, a year after Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party became chief minister. Also a petition filed stating the cows slaughtered outside the state of Maharashtra should be allowed. The Congress, in particular, has been unfairly and unduly severe on him. For Modi and his BJP leaders, ignoring RSS would only endanger their political platform. The Modi government has appointed RSS sympathizers to prominent positions in recent months. The actual raw numbers are 287 incidents in January-May 2015 as against 232 incidents in the corresponding period 2014.
When a gang of thugs ambushed a Mumbai book launch by dousing the compere in ink, India’s literati saw the attack as yet another blot on the country’s reputation for tolerance since Narendra Modi came to power. Turn a page and you will find it reported (Hindustan Times, October 2) that in Hamirpur, once again in Uttar Pradesh, a ninety-year-old Dalit was not only prevented from entering a temple but duly smashed and burnt alive for his gumption. The volunteers, called “panna prabharis”, or in-charge of a page, had to persuade voters who were vacillating to back the BJP, and then escort them to the polls. But yet Indian journalists, no doubt keen to score a political point, run with such comparisons.
Controversial Indian writer Salman Rushdie joined in the debate Tuesday, criticizing the lack of freedom of speech and expression in the country, calling extreme supporters of the prime minister “Modi Toadies”. Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who was once an RSS official and went on to lead the BJP, is now pushing for a nationwide ban on cow slaughter. With no action from the government, leaders of saffron parties claimed that such a thing was constitutional, while the opposition and liberals heavily criticised the Prime Minister. The uproar over this incident should make the Sangh Parivar realize that India’s soul is secular.
As I’ve shown, there’s absolutely no statistical basis on which to make such an assertion. That there are Dalit politicians who support the Hindu Rightwing is of course a fact; but have we heard from them on the matter brought up here?
India has been pushed into an unnecessary debate whether beef should be banned or not. It is indeed a hard reality that, of late, every time there are elections to Parliament or a State assembly, the communal cauldron comes to a boil, and the polarisation that is a effect of it is sought to be encashed by political parties for their own political ends.
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