A senior Congress lawmaker in Gujarat, Gyasuddin Shaikh, has demanded that the cow should be declared the “national animal” and has requested all slaughterhouse owners and operators in Ahmedabad and Gujarat to ensure that the cow or its progeny is not slaughtered anywhere in the State.
Mr. Shaikh, along with a group of Muslim community leaders, appealed to those engaged in running slaughter houses after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Gujarat amended the Gujarat Animal Preservation Act on March 31 to make cow slaughter punishable with life imprisonment, a first in the country. “Muslims, and particularly those involved in the meat business, must respect religious sentiments in order to maintain communal harmony in the State,” said Mr. Shaikh, a legislator representing the Dariapur Assembly segment in Ahmedabad city.
The Bill, which was passed by the Assembly in the absence of opposition members, who were suspended from the House on the last day of the Budget session, has also made cow slaughter and transportation of cow or beef and beef products cognisable and non-bailable offences.
“I support the ban on cow slaughter and my demand is that the ban should be extended nationally. But I also want to stress that in Gujarat, the BJP government has handed over vast areas of grazing lands to industries and, as a result, cows are roaming in the streets and forced to eat plastic bags,” Mr. Shaikh said.
According to him, some anti-social elements in the State, in a nexus with the police and anti-social elements from other States, are involved in cow smuggling and transportation, which must be reigned in by the authorities.
“Let there be very strict punishment for cow smuggling carried out by anti-social elements from Gujarat and outside. The police are also involved but, at the same time, those running the slaughter houses legally should not be harassed,” Mr. Shaikh and other community leaders said.
In Gujarat, cow vigilantes have become a major force, creating law and order problems for the State authorities. Last year, a group of vigilantes had publicly thrashed Dalits in a village near Una in the Saurashtra region for skinning a dead cow and filming the atrocity.
The issue became a national controversy after a video showing Dalits tied to a vehicle paraded and thrashed went viral on social media platforms.
Top leaders, including Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal visited the victims, slamming the State administration for the plight of Dalits engaged in skinning dead animals in the State.
Published - April 05, 2017 11:45 pm IST
