The Delhi police is controlled and managed by the Union home ministry, and not by the government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (and this has long been a matter of contention between the two, frequently causing rows). Kerala House in the national capital is clearly a state government entity. That certainly makes the unauthorised entry of Delhi police personnel — what the state government has called a “raid” — into its cafeteria precincts last Monday a cause of potential friction and an infraction of the federal principle in terms of both technicality and spirit.
Ludicrously, we are back to the so-called beef issue and making a laughing stock of ourselves. It is even worse that the Delhi police acted overzealously when top leaders of 54 African nations are in Delhi for a conference on which much is riding for us, when we are trying to showcase our soft power to the world. That’s why the issue has hit international headlines.
The slaughter of the cow and its progeny is banned in Delhi and most Indian states in deference to broad Hindu sentiment (although beef-eating is not as the meat, say, in tinned form, can be got from abroad or from states where slaughter is not banned). In India it is buffalo meat that is generally called beef, and Hindus in general have no problem with its consumption.
Interestingly, what is true almost across the country, including, incidentally, the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley, is that non-Hindus too generally avoid cow’s meat for various reasons (while, traditionally, sections of non-caste Hindus have had no issue with it). Even the blind can see that the unusual exertion of the Hindutva lobbies on the “beef” question is just a vile device to mobilise so-called Hindu opinion in their favour and in favour of the Union government which has not had too much to show in its 18 months though propaganda noises are plenty.
The device is vile because there is an underlying assumption sought to be spread (among Hindus) that the non-Muslim communities are out to violate norms that are traditionally deemed sacred among Hindus, and this is intended to impair inter-community relations with politics, especially electoral politics, in mind. The Delhi police acted on a complaint by the president of “Hindu Sena” that beef was being routinely served in the Kerala House canteen. What is this unheard of outfit? Who does it represent? Does it even have nuisance value? The police obviously checked nothing. When the matter blew up with the Kerala chief minister and the state Cabinet demanding explanations from the Prime Minister and the Union home minister, the police chief had the so-called Hindu Sena leader arrested under preventive sections of the law. Kerala is entitled to the apology it has sought from the Centre. No one should stand on prestige.
