Goa CM’s stand against beef-ban a good sign
By Amulya Ganguli
How the world has changed for the BJP? Who would have thought that a BJP chief minister, Goa’s Laxmikant Parsekar, would speak out against the ban on beef in Maharashtra and Haryana because the meat was a part of the cuisine of minorities?
For the Hindutva camp, this subject is the most sensitive of all – perhaps even more than the Ayodhya temple – because of its reverence for cows. It has also persistently refused to accept the claim that beef was eaten in ancient India, as has been asserted in the book, Myth of the Holy Cow, by Prof. D.N. Jha of Delhi University.
But, suddenly, the saffron brotherhood will have to come to terms with a new reality where its views are no longer unquestioningly accepted. The reasons range from political to personal. To start with the latter, two Hindus have petitioned the Bombay High Court to say that the ban violates their fundamental rights. “We are Hindus who are consumers of beef”, they have said, “which is now part of our diet and nutrition source”.
As if to confirm that Hindus no longer shy away from admitting that they eat beef, film star Rishi Kapoor tweeted, “I am a beef-eating Hindu. Does that mean I am less God-fearing than a non-eater?” Interestingly, although he received the standard abuse for his statement from the saffron crowd, there were also a number of supporting voices.
Only a few years ago, such voices could not have been heard either because there was fear of intimidation or because such views would have been deemed to be going against the basic tenets of Hinduism. The success of the BJP and the RSS since the start of the Ramjanmabhoomi movement in the 1990s was that they managed to highlight with greater vehemence than before some of what they considered the distinguishing features of Hinduism, of which abhorrence for beef was at the top of the list. Anyone who gave expression to a contrary view was condemned not only as anti-Hindu but also anti-national.
How and why has the change taken place which makes people and even a BJP chief minister take a supposedly anti-national line ? The latter, of course, has clarified that political compulsion is behind his opposition to the ban. With the Christians and Muslims comprising 39-40 per cent of Goa’s population, there is no way that the chief minister could have upheld the ban. As he says, it had taken years for the BJP to earn the trust of the minorities and he was not going to throw it all away.
True, there is a sleight of hand involved in his stance on beef. The government does not allow the killing of cows or even of oxen in Goa. Instead, beef is brought from Karnataka and sold in Goa. Thus, if there are any “anti-nationals”, it is the Kannadigas and not the Konkanis ! But, at least, the chief minister is against ramming the ban down the throat of the people unlike his Marathi and Haryanvi counterparts.
It is not known what Mohan Bhagwat, makes of Parsekar’s placing of politics above religion. But, there is little doubt that the RSS chief will consider this relegation of faith to a secondary place to be yet another example of how moderates in the BJP have been frustrating his pro-Hindu agenda. As long as the Jan Sangh-BJP was out of power, it did not matter because there was no restriction on the RSS carrying on its propaganda against beef, against the minorities and against the Westernized, cosmopolitan Hindus.
But, just when the BJP’s assumption of power at the centre made the RSS believe that it could now implement its majoritarian programme at the national level, the moderates have appeared in the BJP to queer its pitch. The first to put a spoke in the wheel of the RSS was Atal Behari Vajpayee, who was called “half a Congressman” by Sadhvi Rithambara.
And, now, it is Narendra Modi who wants development for all – sabka saath, sabka vikas – which obviously includes the minorities or the “aliens” in V.D. Savarkar’s view since their holy places like Mecca or Rome are outside India. It cannot be gainsaid that it is the cue provided by Modi which has emboldened Parsekar to oppose the ban on beef.
The BJP’s transformation from its anti-minority Jan Sangh days to a party seemingly endorsing pluralism is one of the most significant changes to have taken place in recent times. If anything, it is a triumph of India’s democracy, for it has compelled a majoritarian party to come to terms with the country’s multicultural milieu for the sake of votes even if its genuflection in the direction of broadmindedness is born not out of conviction but expediency.
There is little doubt that Modi deserves a round of applause for this change, for there is no one else in the BJP with his dominant personality and focus on economic reforms who could have made the party accept his line of thought. There are still pockets of resistance in Maharashtra and Haryana, for instance, not to mention the RSS, but it may not be too early to say that the BJP is coming close to accepting the “idea” of India with its essence of accommodating everyone irrespective of caste or creed. (IPA Service)