Recently, a four-day ban on the sale of meat in Mumbai during the Jain festival of Paryushan Parva triggered a controversy . (Reuters File Photo)
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The Jammu and Kashmir high court ordered state police on Thursday to ensure strict implementation of a colonial-era law banning the sale of beef after a petitioner argued the slaughter of bovine animals hurt the sentiments of some communities.
The ruling comes in a year when several states have banned beef trade and cow slaughter, stoking an ever-swirling debate with several right-wing organisations supporting these moves while many minority groups and activists have termed such decisions a blow to personal freedom and India’s secular fabric.
Experts say the high court order is a reiteration of a section of the 1932 Ranbir Penal Code that is applicable in J&K, which says slaughter of cows and “like animals” is punishable with up to 10 years of imprisonment as well as a financial penalty.
A division bench of Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur and Justice Janak Raj Kotwal instructed the director general of police to order top police officials of all districts and police stations to ensure there is no sale of beef in the state and stringent action is taken against violators.
The court was hearing advocate Parimoksh Seth’s public interest litigation (PIL) that said despite the Ranbir Penal Code provisions, bovine slaughter was rampant in the state. Advocate Sunil Sethi, spokesperson of the BJP's state unit, represented the petitioner who is a member of the party’s youth wing.
Soon after the high court order some J&K separatist groups, including Yasin Malik’s Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, called for a shutdown in the Valley on Saturday to protest the ban.
“Although consumption of beef is less in Kashmir, there are some areas where it’s consumed daily. So I see no reason why this practice should not continue,” said moderate Hurriyat leader and the Valley’s head cleric Mirwaiz Umar Farooq. “It’s nothing but a political gimmick.”
India is the world’s second-largest beef exporter after Brazil, but the BJP and its affiliates have been pushing for a nationwide ban on cow slaughter, as the animal is considered holy by many Hindus.
Home minister Rajnath Singh called for a countrywide prohibition on beef in March.
“How can we accept that cows should be slaughtered in this country? We will do our best to put a ban on this, and we will do whatever it takes to build consensus,” he said.
The same month, Maharashtra extended a ban on the slaughter of cows to bulls and bullocks while Haryana made cow slaughter and beef sale non-bailable offences soon after. Jharkhand and Rajasthan are reportedly considering similar legislation. All these states have BJP-led governments.
The court’s order comes days after some civic bodies in Maharashtra banned the sale of meat during the Jain fasting period of Paryushan, triggering a debate on religious sentiments and individual freedom.
Legal experts in Kashmir said the ban was imposed stringently in the state from 1932 to 1947, but its effect waned afterwards.
“The majority community in the state has never opposed the ban due to a sense of respect for Hindus. This despite the fact that it’s an intrusion on a person’s fundamental right,” said senior lawyer GN Shaheen.
The BJP, which rules the state in coalition with the PDP, welcomed the court’s decision saying the party had always opposed the killing of bovine animals like cows and was vigorously pursuing the ban.
“The ban on sale of beef is a worthy decision that would give a strong message against those forces which had been polluting the religious belief of particular community,” said state legislator Ashok Khajuria, arguing that the cow was India’s building force.\
The PDP clarified that the ban was not similar to the ones invoked in Maharashtra and other parts of the country.
“We have inherited the ban from the Constitution of the state. It’s not new. The only thing is considering the sentiments of the majority of people living in Kashmir, it wasn't enforced,” said Waheed-ur-Rehman Parra, political adviser to chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.
The Congress called the issue “sensitive”, warning that the communal wedge in the state was deepening because of the ruling parties pursuing opportunistic agendas.
“The government should take a call on this situation as it is a sensitive issue. It is a high court decision and should be respected above all,” said MLC Ravinder Sharma. The BJP-PDP coalition government is busy raising uncalled for controversies, as the two parties have different approaches on various issues.”
In Maharashtra, the BJP-led government passed the Maharashtra Animal Preservation (Amendment) Act in March, banning the slaughter, sale and import of beef, a move which has been challenged in court. According to the law, slaughter and sale of beef as well as the possession and consumption of beef is a criminal offence.
In Jammu and Kashmir, the beef ban deepens the rift between BJP and PDP
While the opposition seems united and questions the constitutional validity of the ban, the differences sharpen between the ruling coalition.
The political parties of Jammu and Kashmir remain divided on the issue of the beef ban that the Jammu and Kashmir High Court ordered to be enforced ahead of the Eid ul Azha next week. People are vehemently opposing the ban by slaughtering bovine animals, observing a shutdown on last Saturday, amidst continuing protests. The controversy has put the ruling People’s Democratic Party, which mainly represents Muslims, on the backfoot, as none other than its coalition partner, Bharatiya Janata Party, supports the ban.
The slaughter of bovine animals and sale and purchase of beef is a punishable offence in the state under the provisions of sections 298-A, 298-B, 298-C and 298-D of Ranbir Penal Code. On September 16, the High Court issued a notice to the Mufti Mohammad Sayed-led government, in response to a writ petition filed by a former law professor Sayed Afzal Qadri, challenging the constitutional validity of the ban. The state government was asked to submit a response within one week.
United opposition
The Congress is against the beef ban and is ready to support scrapping of the law. Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, noting that the decision had left people of the state angry, noted that it had become a very sensitive issue for the whole country, especially for Kashmir. He added that his party would be open to bring a bill or support anyone else seeking amendments in the law during the autumn session of the state assembly starting from October 3.
The main opposition, the National Conference has already submitted a bill in the assembly for making amendments in the relevant sections that impose a ban on beef. “We are hopeful that this bill will be supported by the members of ruling coalition and other members,” Ali Mohammad Sagar, the party general secretary, told The Indian Express.
Another similar bill was also submitted by independent legislator Engineer Rashid, who said the ban was anti-Muslim. But the Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress president Ghulam Ahmad Mir rightly pointed out that the bill could not be passed without the legislators of the ruling parties, the BJP and the PDP, supporting it.
Divided government
The ruling party, PDP, on the other hand, has been saying that the ban should not be taken seriously. The Member of Parliament and senior party leader Tariq Hameed Karra observed that the recent directive of the Supreme Court that “the meat ban can’t be forced down someone’s throat” has paved the way for scrapping the law in the state.
“The anti-beef sections of RPC have been enacted in 1932 by the then autocratic ruler of the State and have absolutely no relevance in today’s democratic setup,” Karra said in a statement. “All the regional political parties in the State should take a stand on the issue and get these provisions of RPC scrapped through legislation in the upcoming session of the State legislature. These sections have to go and should go, sooner the better.”
Earlier the PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti also said the court’s decision would not change the government’s policy. “The government has not used any force to implement the ban and there won’t be any major change in the government policy vis-à-vis slaughtering of bovine animals and sale of beef,” Mufti told a local news agency. “The ban on beef has not only been imposed in Jammu and Kashmir but is in force in three other states of the country as well," she added. "However, wherever the ban was imposed, authorities were forced to revoke it and allow the practice of slaughtering of bovine animals and sale of beef as usual.”
With such views, it seems the ruling PDP too has decided to toe the opposition line but seems confused in taking any concrete decision. However, since the PDP heads the coalition government, it has become hard for it to support the National Conference's bill in the assembly. Their coalition partner BJP, however, continues to support the ban both within and from outside.
Last week, the BJP clearly stated that the party wanted to honour the court ordered ban. “Any move to lift it will be opposed vigorously as the issue is directly related to the religious sentiments of the Hindu community,” Balbir Ram Rattan, the BJP state spokesperson, told the Press Trust of India.
Threats of a blockade
Meanwhile, in response to this debate, the Vishva Hindu Parishad has threatened to launch an agitation and force people of Kashmir to starve by enforcing an economic blockade similar to that of 2008, if the assembly allowed any such discussion about removing the court-ordered ban.
“We warn the state government that Jammu would observe a black day and the people of the region would be forced to take to the streets if the Assembly Speaker allowed a discussion on an anti-beef ban bill,” Leela Karan Sharma, president of the VHP’s state unit told reporters on Friday.
“The people of Jammu would not tolerate it. The government will have to face consequences. Nobody should be allowed to play with the sentiments of over one billion Hindus across the globe,” Sharma warned.
Kashmir shuts down in protest over high court beef ban
Protests after state high court implements 83-year old law banning consumption of beef in Indian-administered region.
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Kashmiri leaders say that people would reject the ban on not adhere to the court order [EPA]
Indian-administered Kashmir has experienced a complete shut down in protest against a high court's decision to implement a 83-year old law banning beef in the state.
All business establishments, shops and government offices were closed and public transport suspended on Saturday, as Kashmiris followed a call by pro-independence leaders to show their dissatisfaction over the court's decision. Police and paramilitary forces were also deployed.
Shahidul Islam, spokesperson for the Hurriyat Conference (M), an alliance of secessionist parties, and one of the organisers behind the call to protest on Saturday, told Al Jazeera that Kashmiris would reject the court order.
"It is a Muslim majority state and as you must have seen from the last two days, the harsh reaction of the common people, people have clearly rejected this law, it will be very, very hard for government to impose this law here," he said.
Kashmiri leaders have termed the order as motivated by politics and interfering with religious affairs [EPA/Farook Khan]
On Thursday, the Jammu and Kashmir high court had ordered authorities to strictly implement the 1932 law making slaughter of cows punishable with up to 10 years of imprisonment and a fine.
Indian authorities have not enforced the law in Kashmir for nearly seven decades and the decision came after a petition was filed at the courts for the law to be adhered to.
"Since the BJP has taken power it is trying to impose these type of laws through judiciary which is very unfortunate, I am not denying the fact that this law was already there, but now they used the judiciary," Islam said.
Local journalist Rifat Mohidin told Al Jazeera that many Kashmiris were angry and said the move could spark a new wave of protests in the valley.
"People see the ban as a threat to their religious identity," Mohidin said from Srinagar.
Responding to the ban, Waheed-Ur-Rehman, spokesperson for the ruling Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP) in Indian-administered Kashmir, said his party believed "people should decide what they want to eat or don't eat".
"It is very hard to go to kitchens of the people and check what they have cooked ... it is hard to control," Rehman said.
Rehman would not say if his party supported the ban or not, though The Hindu newspaper on Friday reported that the party, currently in a coalition governmentwith the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Indian-administered Kashmir, had also criticised the move.
It is still not clear if the government would lodge an appeal against the ruling.
Police fired tear gas and used batons to disperse the protesters [AP Photo/Dar Yasin]
On Friday, hundreds of Kashmiris chanted anti-government slogans and hurled stones at police to protest against the court ruling.
Protesters took to the streets after Friday prayers in mosques in Srinagar, Pulwama, Pattan and elsewhere in the valley.
A ban on meat has been ordered in India's financial hub of Mumbai and western Gujarat state as well, also governed by the ruling nationalist BJP with its alliances.
India is the world's largest beef exporter and fifth-biggest consumer. In his election campaign of 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused the previous Congress-led government of driving growth on the back of cow slaughter, an act considered sacrilegious by Hindus.
Since Modi came to power in May last year, the rhetoric on the protection of cows has increased.
Critics say tougher anti-beef laws discriminate against Muslims, Christians and lower-caste Hindus who rely on the cheap meat for protein.
Butchers and cattle traders, many of them Muslim, say the push threatens thousands of jobs.
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