The grant of assent to the Maharashtra Animal Preservation
(Amendment) Act, 1995, not only takes away the fundamental liberty of people to
choose their own food, but also marks first victory for the hidden agenda of
the “RSS Parivar”. It appears that, the ‘Parivar’ is now trying to regulate the
freedom of faith of people and henceforth the hidden agenda of the Parivar is
going to decide what people should eat and what not.
President Pranav Mookherjee has granted assent to the Animal
Preservation (Amendment) Bill, 1995 after passage of 19 years. The legislation,
which has taken away the fundamental liberty of people to choose their own
food, was passed by Maharashtra legislature when Shivsena-BJP combine was in
power. It failed to get presidential assent during the regime of Atal Bihari
Vajpaiyee. Nor did President Shankar Dayal Sharma also touch the bill during
the National Front government led by Janata Dal. It seems the president had to
grant assent immediately after Narendra Modi came to power.
Nowhere across Maharashtra or anywhere in India cow are
slaughtered. Indian society has adhered to this tradition for ages. During the
Vedic period, Purohits used to eat slaughtered cow meat, but thereafter most of
Hindus started worshiping cow. Jammu and Kashmir was the first state in India
to ban cow slaughter. Thereafter, in several states legislations were enacted
prohibiting cow slaughter. Mughal ruler Babar was the first ruler to impose ban
on cow slaughter. Sawarkar, the godfather of political Hinduism, used to say
that cow is not mother, but a useful animal. In his book, titled, Ksha Kirane
(X-rays), Savarkar sought to know why not eat cow beef, instead of protecting
cows. Some religious texts tell us that God resides in the cow. In its Varah
form, the God has become pig. Then why not establish Pig Worshipping Centers
and start worshipping pigs? Babar himself has said that if this country is to
be ruled, one must respect the feelings of majority Hindus.
Cow is connected with religious feelings, and according to the
Constitution, one must respect religious sentiments, and therefore there has to
be ban on cow slaughter. The ban on cow slaughter is there since long, and
nobody slaughters cows. But, why then a separate bill was brought for banning
slaughter of cow-race i.e. bulls, bullocks, male buffalo etc. All these animals
are not regarded divine under the Hindu mythology. Generally, farmers dispose
of animals like bulls, bullocks and male buffaloes having completed 15 years of
age and thus becoming useless for agricultural purposes. It becomes
economically unviable for farmers to just keep feeding animals not useful for
agricultural purposes, and most of the times such animals find their way to
slaughter houses.
It is always better to let animals lose to eat plastic and
garbage across the city. It gives rise to two major industries. The meat of
bigger animals is comparatively cheap and thus it makes a major source of
proteins for the poor, especially the backward classes amongst Hindus, as they
do not treat beef forbidden. At the same time, the slaughter of these animals
has provided a source of livelihood to a number of Muslims.
This new legislation has not only taken away the proteins from
the diet of the poor, but will also render thousands in leather-goods business
jobless.
Along with slaughter houses, a huge industry of leather goods
has risen. Slaughter houses generate cheap and good quality leather for this
industry. It supports self-employed persons making shoes and chappals as also
various leather items like bags, purses etc. This entire industry will now be
destroyed. The domestic leather industry, especially the major ones at Dharavi,
Delhi, Chennai and Kanpur has provided employment to lakhs of persons, majority
Hindus. Unfortunately, the end of this domestic leather industry is beginning
in Maharashtra.
But, why do you think all this is being done? Because, unless
you destroy the domestic leather industry, the foreign players will not be able
to dominate the Indian leather market, and that is the reason why all this is
being done. But, before that the first casualty of this entire episode will be
the farming community. Famers get some money in their hand if they dispose of old
animals that are not useful anymore by selling those to slaughter houses. It is
really, useful to sell such animals to slaughter houses than just allow them to
roam free. The skin, meat, bones every part of their body is put to use. There
is thus substance in the statement of farmer’s leaders that this enactment is
going to push the farmer in more trouble.
The word cow-race is really confusing. The ban on cow slaughter
is already in place. Nobody is objecting to it. This attempt to force farmers
to continue to fee old, useless animals is being done in the name of
‘cow-race’, entirely for enabling foreign multinational players to dominate the
Indian leather market.
This act has at a time caused injustice to farmers, leather
goods manufacturers, slaughter houses, employees of slaughter houses and the
supplementary employment generated out of these professions. This act not just
takes away the liberty to choose your own food, but also violates the
Constitutional fundamental rights.
President Pranav Mookherjee could have sent the bill back for
reconsideration. But, he has not done so. It was really not expected of the
person of the stature of Pranav Mookherjee that he will surrender so early to
Modi government.
Kapil Harischandra Patil, MLC
President, Lok Bharti
(In 1996, Kapil Patil had strongly protested against the Bill,
created a movement against it and had also led a group to the then President of
India)
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