Srinagar: Tension spikes in Jammu and Kashmir in the aftermath of the State High Court's asking the police to implement a 120-year-old law that bans slaughter of cow and other bovine animals and sale of beef in the State and take "strict action" against those who violate it.
The court order has since spawned a fiery discourse in the State with various local political parties including separatists and religious groups based mainly in predominantly Muslim Kashmir Valley asking Muslims to violate the ban by slaughtering only bovine animals during coming festival of Eid al-Azha or Bakar Eid.
In fact, cows and other bovine animals were publicly slaughtered at several places in the Valley last week in reaction to the court order. However, senior separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani indirectly voiced his displeasure over the act. He said, “No such activity suits to any Muslim which can trigger communal tension or which will hurt sentiments and emotions of any other person”. He also sought to clarify, “Our protest is not against any particular section or the religion but (against) the controversial decision of the court which has hurt the sentiments of the Muslim community and has given birth to a discussion on this sensitive issue”.
Kashmir’s Chief Muslim cleric and chairman of his faction of Hurriyat Conference, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, however, while terming the ban on beef as “regrettable, illogical and direct intervention in the religious affairs of the Muslims who form the majority in the State”, said, “No court can violate or overrule the laws laid down by the Islamic Sharia and banning the consumption of beef, a halal (permissible) food, by courts is blatant interference in religion affairs, which will not be tolerated”.
On the other hand, mainstream National Conference and Communist Party of India (Marxist) legislator Muhammad Yusuf Tarigami and Independent Sheikh Abdur Rashid have separately moved bills in the State Kashmir Assembly which is meeting here on October 3 for brief autumn session seeking repeal of Section 298-A, 298-B, 298-C and 298-D of the Ranbir Penal Code (RPC) that ban bovine slaughter and the sale of beef.
But the BJP has not only vowed to oppose the move, one of its legislators Ravinder Raina has moved a resolution in the Assembly demanding capital punishment for those found slaughtering cow in the state. "Those who are found guilty should be awarded capital punishment", the resolution reads. He has asked for a complete ban on cow slaughter and sale of beef as per the directions passed by the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir. Some other party MLAs have publicly vowed that they would not allow any discussion in the House on the issue.
Speaker of the Assembly, Kavinder Gupta, has said that he will not allow discussion on any bills or resolutions which have the potential of vitiating atmosphere in the State in the House. “I will not allow any bill or resolution which can create controversy and disturb peaceful atmosphere in the State,” he told Greater Kashmir newspaper adding “Things which can deteriorate law and order situation in the state won’t be allowed as part of proceedings of the House.”
While BJP’s partner in the ruling coalition Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) is reportedly making behind the scene effort to ensure political parties arrive at consensus on the issue than moving bills in the Assembly or fighting it out on the streets, senior BJP leader and deputy chief minister, Dr. Nirmal Singh, has virtually thrown it in awkward position by publicly saying, “The BJP-PDP coalition is committed to implement the order of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court against beef sellers and cow slaughterers”. He accused the separatists and the mainstream opposition parties including NC of trying to communalise the whole issue.
PDP president, Mehbooba Mufti, who is currently in Saudi Arabia at the head of a 2-member Hajj delegation from India, had earlier said that the court directions to the police to strictly enforce the ban on the slaughter of bovine animals and the sale of beef in the State as envisaged in the relevant provisions of the RPC will not change the government’s policy on the issue. “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,” she had said.
Congress has called for maintaining maintain restraint over the issue and said that any emotional decision about it could have dangerous repercussions in Jammu and other parts of the country. “At times decisions of courts and governments are bitter but we should not get carried away. Some decisions can make people angry. And the decision (of High Court) is also very sensitive particularly for Kashmiris. My request is that in such situation Kashmiris should not take emotional decisions and it can have negative consequences," senior party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said in Srinagar recently.
However, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) only sought to fuel the existing tensions by threatening to launch a massive agitation and enforce an economic blockade of Muslim majority Kashmir Valley if the State Assembly allows a discussion to revoke the RPC provisions which govern the slaughter of cattle in the State. [Under these provisions, voluntary slaughter of any bovine animal such as cow, ox, bull or calf is a punishable offence with imprisonment of either description which may extend to 10 years and shall also be liable to fine. The fine may extend to five times the price of the animals slaughtered as determined by the court. Possession of the flesh of slaughtered animals is also an offence punishable with imprisonment up to 1 year and fine up to ?500]
The VHP’s state unit president Leela Karan Sharma told reporters in Jammu that if the beef ban is revoked it “would enforce an economic blockade in Kashmir, forcing people to starve.” He added, “The people of Jammu will not tolerate it…The government will have to face consequences. People will be forced to take to the streets and launch an agitation similar to the one in 2008 if slaughtering of bovines continued unabated in the region.” Mr. Sharma also said that it was a “sensitive” issue related to religious and emotional sentiments of Hindus and that “Nobody should be allowed to play with the sentiments of over one billion Hindus across the globe.”
Mr. Sharma’s threat of economic blockade of Kashmir evoked a strong reaction from various political parties and trade organizations in the Valley. Kashmir Economic Alliance (KEA), an amalgam of various trade bodies of the Valley, termed Mr. Sharma’s statement as ‘irresponsible’ and accused the VHP of trying to create division between the State’s two major regions-Jammu and Kashmir Valley. It said that if the Valley was depended on supplies from Jammu, the Jammu region is also depended on the market from the Valley. “Jammu traders have main market share from Kashmir. Enforcing economic blockade will only weaken the Jammu based business community,” said KEA’s Showkat Chowdhary.
He also said that in the event of economic blockade of the Valley “We will seek more supplies from though Muzaffarabad, Pakistan and China route to get rid of the dependence on supplies from Srinagar-Jammu highway.” He urged the Jammu traders to side with their business counterparts in Kashmir Valley “to foil the nefarious designs of these disruptive elements”. “Jammu traders should understand that this VHP and their likes are playing with their livelihood and using them as tools against Kashmir. This will only snatch livelihood of Jammu traders and the people associated with the trade,” he asserted.
Local watchers say that if the issue of ban on cow slaughter and the sale of beef is not tackled carefully and practical political wisdom applied in the matter, it may cause worst ever religious polarization in the State and widen schism between 'Hindu Jammu' and 'Muslim Kashmir Valley’. Return of an ugly situation such as witnessed during the 2008 Amarnath land row will not be any less than a catastrophe for the State.
