If an international award is instituted for hypocrisy, the BJP-ruled India would win it hands down. Its current hard-line Hindu leaders abhor the idea of the cow being slaughtered but the country retains its top spot as the world’s largest exporter of beef, according to data released by the US Department of Agriculture. India has even extended its lead over the next highest exporter, Brazil.
Even in Indian states like Mizoram, Goa and Arunachal Pradesh, the cow meat is eaten without anyone raising eyebrows about it. But if one is surprised why the Indian premier is mum over Mohammed Akhlaq’s savage killing by his party supporters while the country is outraged over the barbarity, Narendra Modi’s past speeches would offer some clue.
The Twitter-active saffron czar, in his public addresses, talked about the ‘sin’ of slaughtering cows and cautioned against what he called the ‘Pink Revolution’. “The agenda of the Congress is Pink Revolution,” he had said. “We have heard of the Green Revolution and White Revolution but never pink and this means the slaughter of animals. You see, the color of mutton is pink, and they are committing the sin of exporting it and bringing revolution… Because of this, our animal wealth is being slaughtered, our cows are being slaughtered, or sent abroad to be slaughtered… And now the Congress is saying, ‘If you vote for us, we will give you permission to kill cows’.”
In Bihar, he alleged that due to the proliferation of slaughterhouses, cattle were being stolen from villages. And the filthy rumor in the Dadri village about a calf’s slaughter by Akhlaq’s family was fanned by claims that a calf had been stolen a few days ago. No marks for joining the dots.
It is highly deplorable and very un-Indian that instead of swinging into action to rein in those responsible for the broad daylight lynching, some party leaders are demanding the accused be released. Some of the Hindu zealots are even condoning the murder because, in their view, the supposed cow slaughter rightly left Hindus livid.
It is shocking to note that prominent citizens in general and secular masses in particular are pleading to Modi to just make the ritualistic ‘I condemn it’ statement, but the BJP juggernaut pretends that nothing happened.
The petition on Change.Org ‘Speak Up Modi’ which has reached around 6,000-plus signatures must be a cause of worry for those who believe in using the state machinery to terrorize and subjugate the principal minority.
A local BJP leader’s son was arrested on Saturday in connection with the slaying. Had he been a Congress leader’s son and had there been a Congress government in the center, the BJP leaders who are hiding faces today would have beaten their chests demanding the resignation of the prime minister.
Modi never gets tired of raising the all-inclusive development slogan, but all that the country under him has seen in the last 16 months is unbridled lunatic acts by some elements of the party he heads. Their well-thought-out periodic verbal attacks against India’s Muslim minority have polarized society to dangerous levels. It appears that Modi is secretly working on the saffron agenda of turning India into a Hindu Rashtra (nation) — the unrealized dream of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the fountainhead of Hindu fanaticism and the BJP’s mother party.
While many Indians must be regretting to vote the BJP to power, the opposition is not united to offer any hope. By keeping quiet over Akhlaq’s liquidation, a glib Modi, who has not yet apologized for allegedly presiding over the 2002 Muslim carnage under his watch in Gujarat, has only strengthened the popular view that he is hand in gloves with the dark forces who want to purge India of Muslims and Christians.
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