Proposed cow protection rally faces object in north east

A view of cattle market in the outskirts of Guwahati. File photo
| Photo Credit: Ritu Raj Konwar

A rally by a cow protection group has earned the wrath of several northeastern parties, including the Nagaland unit of the BJP.

Education Minister Rakkam A. Sangma on Monday expressed concern over the Gau Dhwat Sthapana Bharat Yatra by the representatives of Shankaracharya Avimukteshwaranand to hold the rally on October 2 seeking the declaration of the cow as the ‘mother of the nation’ and a cow slaughter-free India.

The minster is a leader of the National People’s Party, an ally of the BJP.

“I request the organisers of such rallies not to enact this drama. They can hold the rally elsewhere in the country,” Mr. Sangma said, asserting “extremists” have no right to dictate what people should or should not eat.

“Nobody on earth can force me to stop eating a food I like and beef is my favourite food,” he said and urged people not to link beef to any religion.

Some of the State’s political parties and some social organisations have been exerting pressure on the government to not allow the rally in Meghalaya. The regional Voice of the People Party (VPP) said the yatra could disturb peace and communal harmony in the State.

“While we fully support and uphold the principle of freedom of religion as enshrined in our Constitution, we are deeply troubled by the potential implications such an event could have on communal harmony in our State,” the VPP’s Shillong MP Ricky J. Syngkon said in a letter written to Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma.

“This yatra is a Hindu majoritarian communal attack on the pluralist and secular culture of India and Meghalaya,” Angela Rangad of the Thma U Rangli Juki, an activist group, said.

“The consumption of beef, also for religious purposes, is common among the communities in Meghalaya,” she added.

Earlier, Nagaland BJP president Benjamin Yepthomi said the party was against the rally whose objective “directly interferes with the culture and dietary choices of the Nagas”.

Announcing their support for his stand, the party’s Phek district unit said that in Naga custom, equating a mother to an animal was outrightly disrespectful and insulting to the revered position mothers occupy in the family and the society.

“Any forceful imposition or alteration to the rich customs and traditions of the Naga people poses a threat to the peace and harmony that the Nagas have cherished for generations,” the unit said in a statement.

The Nagaland government, of which the BJP is a constituent, subsequently decided not to grant permission to the organisers to hold the ostensibly anti-beef rally in the State.

The All Arunachal Pradesh Students’ Union also objected to the yatra, calling it an encroachment on the people’s right to decide what to eat. Their Mizoram counterpart, the Mizo Zirlai Pawl also criticised the yatra organisers for advocating against the slaughter of cattle in the State.