It is not surprising that an NDA minister, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, outdid the Hindutva advocates saying that consumers of beef should head for Pakistan if they could not live without it. It is highly discriminatory against the minority communities many of whom not only have no prejudice against beef but are also used to eating it. Besides, beef is relatively cheap and suits a large number of poor people in the minority communities. The ban on cow slaughter is somewhat illogical. Slaughter of animals is bad as Maneka Gandhi would say. Why merely cow slaughter? Union Minister of State for home affairs, Kiran Rijju considers Naqvi’s comment an insult to a great many Indians in the Northeast, Karnataka, Kerala, West Bengal and elsewhere and has called the latter’s statement an attempt at oneupmanship. It is a staple diet in his native Arunachal Pradesh and the rest of the Northeast.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said sometime ago that the only religion was India and the only holy book was the Indian Constitution. That is secularism of the highest order. If Modi has made some realignments on the political scene, it is towards secularism. Whatever may be said against J. Jayalalitha or Mamata Banerjee, both certainly stand for secularism which does not permit imposition of the habits, prejudice and will of the majority on the minority. Beef is consumed by over 15% of the Indian community and is not forbidden even in some Hindu homes. What is surprising is that Rijju said that Hindu-majority states are entitled to make laws that they believe are conducive to the Hindu faith. There was no reason for him to say that he and his wife did not eat beef at home. He obviously tried to be with the Northeastern people while toeing the line of Hindutva zealots like Amit Shah.