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Cow vigilantism threat

Kashmir Times. Dated: 4/24/2017 12:18:23 AM

Well-trained 'gau rakshaks' pose a serious threat to a multi-religious and multi-cultural society and rights of people guaranteed by Indian Constitution

The cowardly and condemnable attack by cow vigilantes on nomads including a nine-year old girl, at least two of them suffering from multiple fractures, from Talwara area of Reasi district on the intervening night of April 20 and April 21 is yet another incident in line of similar attacks on unsuspecting people on mere suspicions of bovine smuggling. Jammu and Kashmir has witnessed few such incidents in the last two years; though many of them did not catch public attention, the lynching of Kashmiri truck driver in Udhampur two years ago, close on the heels of the infamous Dadri lynching, was a glaring example that inspired nation-wide shock and condemnation. In a recent incident in Rajasthan, a man attacked by cow vigilantes succumbed to his injuries earlier this month. Cow vigilantism has been shockingly on the rise across the country and is a grave issue that demands that rulers sit up and take notice of such incidents rather than offering a cover of impunity by way of political patronage and dragging feet over prosecution. The Dadri lynching case, where much of the investigation has been focused on the detection of meat sample lying inside the victim, Akhlaq's house, and in lodging counter FIRs against the victims' families is a testimony to the non-seriousness of the BJP-government at the centre and other BJP-led governments in the states. With BJP's rise to power, the RSS has received a shot in the arm. Many organizations like Gau Rakshak Samitis that owe direct allegiance to RSS or share its ideology of pursuing aggressive Hindutva have been activated with governments in the states and at the Centre dealing with such groups and individuals taking law into their hands and often victimizing poor innocent people with kids' gloves. Though, the central government and several state governments have professed to clamp down on those taking law into their hands in the name of protecting cows, in practice very little is done against them or those eulogising the goons cracking down on hapless citizens, attacking them and accusing them of smuggling. Why has the government failed to take action against people like Sadhvi Kamal, the self-styled cow activist, who heads the Rashtriya Mahila Gau Raksha Dal active in three BJP-dominated states - Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh after she praised the attackers of the dairy farmer lynched in Rajasthan recently. Shockingly, she not only patted the attackers, she also equated them to Bhagat Singh's actions. Her utterances are both a violation of law and an insult to national heroes and should not be tolerated.
It is obvious that political patronage also results in the legal justice system becoming increasingly lopsided in the favour of the cow vigilante groups. A latest report in the 'India Today' reveals that the cow vigilantes are thoroughly trained, as admitted by some RSS functionaries, in a way that helps them dodge prosecution. They are being trained in massive numbers across the country to strike their targets ferociously, most with the aim of breaking bones of their victims, and taking caution that the victims are not killed. In the face of such massive training methods and the limp legal procedures against the cow vigilantes, the government's promised commitment to its promised goal of cracking down on law-breakers and maintaining zero tolerance against them does not match the zeal and obsession it has with its far more cherished goal of cow protection. The latter may be a prime project of the BJP, which is inspired by the RSS' Hindutva agenda but as the government of the day, it is the duty of those in power to protect the lives and security of individuals threatened by lumpen elements as per its constitutional obligations. It has a special responsibility of protecting all the people in a state like Jammu and Kashmir, where almost one million nomads are on the move during this season with their live-stock to the hilly areas hosting large tracts of grazing pastures during the summer season. Till date, most of these nomads have become targets of cow vigilantes. It must also check this cow vigilantism which is excessively communal and casteist in nature, Muslims and Dalits being majority of the victims, as it challenges the constitutionally guaranteed values of secularism, liberty and equality.