Dear BJP, dump the #BeefBan in Maharashtra and reduce hunger instead

Polarising people in the name of religion is too overt, but doing it by pitting their eating habits against each other may have the same effect while appearing totally benign.

The ban of sale, possession and consumption of beef in Maharashtra with stringent punishment is certainly a political move because cow is sacred to the Hindus, according to the BJP and Hindu organisations, and most of the beef business is handled by Muslims. More over, most of the consumers of beef are also believed to be Muslims and Christians. After all, you are what you eat, seems to be the message from the government that brands and divide people.

From now own, no cows will be killed in Maharashtra. They will be raised compassionately and allowed to age gracefully and die under human care. The government will set up cow-shelters, where the cows will be cared for once they run out of milk. Nobody knows how many millions of cows Maharashtra has, but certainly it will have a fair share of India’s livestock that makes the country the largest producers of milk. Granted that bulk of it comes from buffalos, but the number of cows is also significant.

In a country where basic hunger of people is still unmet , the upkeep of the cows that cannot be slaughtered will ultimately fall on the farmer, who incidentally will have to stop rearing cows because the cost will impoverish him/her. It will have an impact on the economies of poor and rural households besides affecting milk overall production of the state.

It’s for these reasons that the father of Indian white revolution, Verghese Kurien had staunchly opposed the ban on cow-slaughter. In his autobiography, he recalls his efforts to oppose the ban on cow-slaughter on behalf of the dairy industry: “My brief was to prevent any ban on cow slaughter. It was important for us in the dairy business to keep weeding out the unhealthy cows so that available resources could be utilised for healthy and productive cattle. I was prepared to go as far as to allow that no useful cow should be killed. This was the point on which the Shankaracharya and I invariably locked horns and got into heated arguments. I constantly asked him, ‘Your Holiness, are you going to take all the useless cows which are not producing anything and look after them and feed them till they die? You know that cannot work.’ He never had any answer to my query.”

For the time being, most of the owners in states such as Maharashtra do not kill cows, but allow them to be smuggled out of the states to be slaughtered elsewhere, including in Bangladesh. According to this Atlantic article , India has about 30,000 illegal slaughter houses and about two million cows are smuggled to Bangladesh in a year. Will Maharashtra government establish a border patrol to stop cattle movement?

Besides being part of a global culinary culture, beef is also a great source of protein, in fact among the top ten food sources. For years, till the restrictions jacked up its price, it had been the cheapest source of protein. By crippling its availability in a region that is worse than sub Saharan Africa in protein malnourishment is foolish. More over, meat proteins are far more complete in terms of the essential amino acids that the human body requires. The ban is a direct threat to the already fragile food security of people.

BJP says that banning cow-slaughter is its election promise. Will the BJP ruled states set up homes and budgets for taking care of unproductive cows? Is it even feasible while the problem of hunger is “alarming” in most of the states except in Punjab, Kerala, Assam and Andhra Pradesh? In fact, the Hunger Index of Gujarat, another state where cows cannot be slaughtered, is worse than India’s national average, which incidentally is worse than countries such as Pakistan and Malawi.

Will the BJP now turn to India’s beef exports? In his prime ministerial campaign, Narendra Modi had made fun of the Congress for promoting a “pink revolution”, which meant exporting beef. As the second largest exporter of beef in the world, India earns about $ 4.3 billion a year. According to BJP, the Congress had encouraged beef exports (although most of it’s buffalo meat) to placate the Muslims. Modi had promised to stop this. Will he? If he does, polarisation of people using beef-politics will be complete. His economists may advise against it because it’s a lot of foreign exchange.

The ban, if strictly enforced across India, will certainly affect rearing cows. In the name of religion, meddling with a mutually beneficial ecosystem that has contributed immensely to the country’s food security, is foolish.

Instead of fanning religious emotions of people, what the country needs are stringent measures for the upkeep of productive cattle so that they don’t wander on city roads and highways and die eating garbage and plastic. If we are kind to our cattle, we should modernise abattoirs and  enforce global standards in our meat industry.

Lastly, that Hindus don’t eat beef is a myth. For instance, majority of Hindus, including the saffronites, in Kerala eat it. For many years it had been their staple protein until factory-bred chicken replaced it as a cheaper option in recent times. In big cities and state capitals, the elite and the well-travelled love their steaks and beef-burgers. Instead of focusing on cows and beef, the BJP governments should be encouraged to reduce hunger and the severe protein malnourishment of its people.