Sangh Parivar

According to a report in Sunday Times of India of April 27 (Lucknow edition),
Mufti Habibur Rehman, head of the fatwa department of Darul Uloom, Deoband,
Uttar Pradesh, has issued a fatwa asking Muslims to abstain from cow slaughter,
eating beef and trading in cow hides if the country's laws forbade it.

Shari'ah, he pointed out, did not allow anything against the law; eating beef
was, therefore, not permissible even if Islam allowed it.

One does not know to what extent the fatwa will be honoured. The area around
Shaharanpur, the town where Darul Uloom is situated, has a very large number of
tanneries and slaughter houses, mostly owned by Muslims. The fatwa may not
please them. There, however, can be no doubt that it needs to be welcomed,
whatever its impact on the ground. Illegal cow slaughter is responsible for
triggering a large percentage of communal riots in the country and the fatwa has
to be lauded as a gesture conducing to Hindu-Muslim amity.

It is, however, not a question of Islam and Muslims.

Religious edicts, whichever the faith in question, tend to be disregarded if
inconvenient. Many Hindus horribly mistreat cows, which they are supposed to
worship. A publication, Inside the Indian Dairy Industry: A Report on the Abuse
of Cows and Buffaloes for Milk, brought out by People for the Ethical Treatment
of Animals (PETA) India, leaves one numb with horror. Equally horrifying is the
manner in which cattle are killed in slaughter houses and transported there in
gross violation of the Transport of Animals Rules framed under the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960.

State Governments have generally been most remiss in implementing the rules.

Worse, in many instances, their officials have harassed and registered false
criminal cases against those approaching them seeking the rules' enforcement.

Many of these officials and the Chief Ministers heading the Governments
employing them are Hindus, as are the cattle transporters.

While the question of cruelty to animals is important, far more so is the
fact that the question of transportation of cattle is closely linked to their
smuggling to Bangladesh, which has assumed gargantuan proportions. A report in
the Delhi edition of The Tribune (April 16) states, "According to one estimate a
whopping number of 500 cows and bulls and over 17,000 buffaloes were illegally
being taken out of Punjab daily to slaughterhouses mainly based in Muzaffarnagar
in Uttar Pradesh, Fulbari near Aurangabad, Karnataka and West Bengal." The
middlemen involved also despatch the cattle to Bangladesh where, the report
points out, meat prices are comparatively high and the rearing of cows and bulls
is negligible and where there are a large number of slaughterhouses and bulk
meat exporters.

An official document cites a Border Security Force estimate of 15 to 16 lakh
heads of cattle being smuggled annually while West Bengal Government sources put
the figure at 50 to 60 lakh.

The document quotes BSF Director-General AK Mitra as stating at a conference
convened by the Union Home Ministry that the BSF can impound these animals only
within a five km belt along the Bangladesh border, and that there were 68
identified smuggling corridors for taking these to Bangladesh. The official
document also quotes the BSF's Inspector-General, Operations, Mr Shivaji Sinha,
as saying that 149 villages close to the Bangladesh border were considered
sensitive for the smuggling of animals, which included not merely cattle but
also buffaloes and camels.

Cattle smuggling has serious implications for national security. During
interrogations by Uttar Pradesh Police, several terrorists have admitted that it
generated a large part of the fund for their activities which came from
Bangladesh through hawala channels.

A report by Abu Mustafa in the January 21, 2005, edition of Bangladesh's
leading Bengali-language daily, Prothom Alo, says that the payment for the
smuggled cattle is being made through hundis. It states "In connection with
Id-ul Azha, thousands and thousands of cattle and buffaloes have been brought
(from India) to the country's (Bangladesh's) north-western parts over the past
several days through smuggling corridors. The payment for these is being made
through hundis." It adds that the allegation is that the Bangladesh Government,
which has enacted laws to curb hundi transactions and has been conducting an
extensive campaign for their implementation, is itself encouraging these in
respect of cattle smuggled from India.

The report, which gives detailed account of how the Bangladesh Government
legitimised the smuggling, raises the question: What is the Government of India
doing to stop it?

Source : The Pioneer, Delhi edition

Date :  01-05-2008

Author : Hiranmay Karlekar