Cow Tensions Reach Delhi; Shiv Sena Questions BJPs 'Double Standards'

NEW DELHI: South Delhi’s Kusum Pahadi area is simmering as clashes left at least five persons injured over what can roughly be described as ‘cow politics.’ And major violence was averted in Shahdara following rumours of beef being sold after vets declared it to be buffalo.

In Kusum Pahadi area, Sharmila faced with what she thought to be a belligerent cow, threw a stone at it to escape. She and her husband Jaishankar, jhuggi dwellers were attacked. Jaishankar and his brother who tried to intervene were beaten mercilessly and suffered head injuries and a broken arm.

This was at 6am on March 31. However, the tensions erupted again when a private driver Uday Chand Mandal who had tried to stop the first assault was targeted and attacked by a mob. This was because he has merely tried to make them stop as Jaishankar and his brother were bleeding profusely. On April 1 a mob attacked his house, and assaulted him, his brother and sons. Cases have been registered and four persons arrested so far.

In Shahdara a rumour that a local meat shop was selling beef spread like wildfire, but possible violence was stopped as the vets certified that the meat was buffalo and now cow. The shop has been running for 25 years and the owners are now terrified as they have received threats earlier as well.

Significantly, in a third incident the Delhi police itself claims to have had a ‘shoot out’ with alleged cow lifters again in Delhi near Raghubir Nagar.Claiming a chase during which shots were fired, the police claim to have arrested two men in the case.

Meanwhile in an environent where the cow is fast becoming the property of the right and far right, the Shiv Sena has attacked the Bharatiya Janata party in its mouthpiece Saamna. The editorial writes what many in the Opposition have been murmuring, maintaining the “Government is busy in protecting cow but it has left farmers dying.”

The editorial also hints at the collusion of the BJP government with beef exporters when it says, “If Hindutvavadi government has banned beef in India then how come export has increased in such a large numbers?”

Asking the Maharashtra government to provide financial relief to farmers through waiving off loans, the shiv Sena says, “If people would get capital punishment for killing cows then governments also be booked for murder in case of farmers suicides. Who is responsible for it? Today’s government can’t escape its responsibility by showing fingers to earlier ones.”

The editorial has also demanded a single law on the beef ban issue applicable across India. And questions the BJP’s dual beef policy with, “We demand similar law in UP as well as Maharashtra. We also want to ask a question to government. If you are claiming beef ban is in implementation then how come export of beef has increased in many folds ?

The editorial has also referred to the BJPs Kerala candidate N. Sriprakash in the Lok Sabha by election from Mallapuram constituency, who supported beef during his campaign. The Sena asked, “What BJP has to say on him? Even beef is not banned in BJP ruled Goa, Assam and Manipur? How BJP would reply on this duality?”