Congress has always been double faced on cow slaughter ban

The Indian National Congress, commonly called the Congress in political language, has always maintained two faces when it comes to the question of cow slaughter ban. From the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to the current leadership, the Congress has never been consistent in its views; always tweaking its stand to suit its immediate political interests. To take the current incidents first, top Congress leaders hailing from God's Own Country Kerala initially reacted with statements like 'centre's notification should torn into pieces and dumbed on a dust-bin' (AK Antony).

Provocative words:

Taking a cue from their seniors local Congress politicians came out with even more provocative words. Sample this...Rijil Makkutty of the Youth Congress said 'the government's decision is an act of cruelty against a large population. To oppose this we will slaughter cattle in public and we will distribute the meat to the
public.'

District Congress chief of Kollam, Bindu Krishna said, 'Beef delicacy will be packed and sent to head post office for delivery to Modi ji.'

Unaware of beef festivals?

In this age of internet and information technology, it is difficult to believe that Congress leadership was not aware of the beef festivals being organized or of the public slaughter as announced by local units. However, as people (not just Hindus) watched in shock the barbarity unfolding on the internet, the Congress beat a retreat and Rahul Gandhi came out to condemn the act. It is another matter that gory pictures of slaughtered animals kept surfacing on the internet even twenty four hours after the tweet.

The party's central spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said 'such people have no place in the Congress' and announced their suspension. Just a day earlier, his colleague Abhishek Singhvi had denied these people were Congress members.

To go back some decades, Jawaharlal Nehru was opposed to any ban on cow slaughter. The Constitution makers had just included cow slaughter ban in the Directive Principles of State Policy when in 1954 senior Congress MP Seth Govind Das moved a resolution in the Lok Sabha for a total ban on cow slaughter. When Nehru rejected it out of hand, Das said that a "large majority of the party" was in favour of the resolution. Where upon Nehru retorted, "I would rather resign than accept this nonsensical demand". According to Nehru, the issue of cow slaughter was 'unimportant and reactionary.'

Interesting turn of events:

But here is an interesting turn of events. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Dr. Sampoornanand, a noted Sanskrit scholar, introduced a bill on cow slaughter in open defiance of Nehru's explicit wishes. The law was passed and Nehru described it as a 'wrong step'.

Then came 1966. Loknayak Jayaprakash Narayan wrote to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi for a ban on cow slaughter. He wrote 'I cannot understand why, in a Hindu majority country like India, where rightly or wrongly, there is such a strong feeling about cow-slaughter, there cannot be a legal ban'. Indira Gandhi flatly refused. This led to an explosive situation as Hindu organizations called for a country wide agitation. Many cow protection groups gathered for a massive protest outside Parliament. It is a historic fact that eight people died after riots broke out in the protests in November 1966. The incidents led Indira Gandhi to sack home minister Gulzarilal Nanda.

But in 1982, the same Indira Gandhi who was then pursuing a Hindu appeasement policy wrote to 14 Chief Ministers urging that the cow-slaughter ban be enforced in letter and spirit, and not allowed to be circumvented at any cost.

(Smita Mishra, advisor, Prasar Bharati)