Meat Ban, Minorities and the Question of Economic Rights

Newsclick interviewed the author and activist Subhash Gatade on the question of the meat ban declared in various parts of India comprising mostly of those states ruled by the BJP. Gatade said that the Sangh Parivar affiliated BJP is trying to push the agenda of RSS on dividing people on religious lines, and is propagating the ideology of HIndutva. The propaganda of vegetarianism is a tool to ensure the hegemony of upper castes and, by virtue of it, downgrade the minority and Dalits. Gatade said it is a systematic attack on the economic means of minorities and Dalits and hence is part of larger agenda to marginalise them. He said the BJP is trying to divert the attention of people from its incapable, 'Jumla' government which has been a complete failure. Gatade asserts that all the secular forces should come together irrespective of their differences to counter this Hindutva majoritarianism and uphold the principal of secularism in the country.

Rough Transcript:

Pranjal: Hello and welcome to Newsclick. Today we have with us Subhash Gatadeji who is an author and and activist. We are going to discuss about the recent meat bans that has been imposed in various states starting from Maharashtra itself. This beef ban which was implemented in Maharashtra two months back and now the meat ban. Earlier it was for 2 day then 4 days and now 8 days. Though judiciary has intervened, but where do you trace that entire process of banning beef and the banning meat and what's the history of it.

Subhash Gatade: As far as history of banning meat and products are concerned, I think like in the Congress government also when it was in power. It had tried to do it. One goes to trace the history of banning meat on different occasions, one can definitely trace it to Congress government. But the vehemence with which, the ferocity with which meat ban is being implemented these days, that is unprecedented. It started with the beef ban in Maharashtra. So there is a conscious attempt on part of the BJP and the Hindutva Parivar and the RSS to raise this issue of meat ban or beef ban to polarize communities, to divide people on religious lines and this time they are doing it using the sentiments of Jain community.

Pranjal: When you see say specific ban of meat ban itself, it's not something which is anti Hindutva ideology itself which they have been propagating since so long most of the Hindus also consume meat. So don't you think it is a systematic way to attack minorities instead of trying to unite majority on these lines?

Subhash: I think we should look at the whole idea of whole meat ban in two ways. You rightly said they are trying to attack the minorities since the majority of the people who are involved in the business of meat or business of beef are Muslims. So one thing of looking at the whole thing is to trying to attack the minorities. But at second level, we should definitely understand we should look at it because the whole idea of RSS, the whole idea of Hindutva, my understanding is that it is a Brahminical idea. The way, if one looks at the genesis of RSS, genesis of Hindutva, the Brahminical current always gets missed and under the whole ideology of Brahminism the valorization of vegetarianism is there. You valorize vegetarianism and so that way you stigmatize the dalits, the backwards. So it serves both the purposes. Pushing the Brahminical agenda, making people more vegetarian, vegetarianism has a new value to it. So both the agendas are being played out through this meat ban.

Pranjal: Also if you look at it, mostly the traders who deals in the beef and all that are very small scale traders and from minority community gaining their economy through it. Now you trace back, history of communal riots be it 2002 and then Muzaffarnagar riots itself. Their leaders have systematically pointed out that if you attack these economic purposes of minority community, you will break their bones and then they will be whitewashed. So do you think that this agenda also going.

Subhash: Yes, definitely because in 2002, when Gujarat riots happened or Gujarat genocide took place. N number of reports came out and it demonstrated that there was a conscious attack on the properties of Muslims, well, prosperous Muslims so they did not want merely to kill Muslims but they wanted to break their economic back also. So that agenda is always there in any communal riot. You look at any communal riot, they try to target prosperous Muslims also. So in this beef ban and meat ban, both the issues one can definitely see that the attempt to push the Muslims to the margins of the society so they become vulnerable. Their existence is there but they become more vulnerable, more marginal.

Pranjal: Also this one angle to it like the major big exports of meat and beef usually these houses belong to the Hindus. So also they are trying to promote the export houses of this big Hindu business men by shutting down this small scale business. Do you think this angle also to it?

Pranjal: No, I have not studied in detail of this. But must be that angle to it. The interesting thing it is that I don't remember the figures. Mr. Modi has campaigned against this beef things, in the campaigning, but if you look at the figures of export in India, it was seen a quantum jump under Modi regime and when Modi's representatives were asked this questions, how do explain it, Nirmala Venkataraman and all other people. They were just silent.

Pranjal: Also within the allies of BJP like Shiv Sena is opposing this meat ban and they yesterday went outside a Jain community centre, entered and cooked chicken there. If we trace it back to Kashmir itself where BJP is in coalition government and it is trying to revoke Penal Code of 1932. so don't you think this entire policy of sectarianism in terms of region going on in Maharashtra and reinforcement of Dogra entity in Kashmir?

Subhash: The manner in which the Shiv Sena opposed this meat ban that was on the basis of Marathi versus Gujarati. So on the one hand, I found it fine that Shiv Sena is trying to corner BJP. But the plank on which they did it was on the Marathi sub-nationalism. Similar case is happening in Kashmir also. So it does not serve the purpose of secularism. People get more disunited, more divisions are there.

Pranjal: Government is clearly on back foot. Be it the issue of land acquisition act which they had to take back, the rising prices of various food like onion being sold at 80 rupees per kg. So do you think these are also attempts to sideline and put these issues on the back front and focus issues which divide the people?

Subhash: Yes, definitely because the BJP under Mr. Modi, they are slowly realized that all their talk of development, all their talk of betterment of people, they will not be able to do it. They had to take a U turn on the land acquisition bill and the manner in which the prices of commodities are increasing, so they are not able to do anything about it and since they had to raise expectations on these lines, so people had started asking questions. So they just want to divert people's attention from these real issues to all these issues so that people start fighting among each other. So they don't talk about Mehangayi, they don't talk about these rising prices. They don't talk about land acquisition. All these things, suicide of farmers.

Pranjal: Where do you think this is heading towards? I mean when we talk about the issue of secularism, the issue of fundamental rights, it clearly is on decline if we look at the current regime. So what do you think is the way ahead?

Subhash: Congress definitely played a problematic role in initiating this meat ban and I always look at Congress these too rise struggles going on there. I always keep quoting Prof. Aijaz Ahmad. Congress is pragmatic communalist and these are problematic communalist and the challenge of majoritariansm is before all of us. My understanding is to all secular democratic forces we need to unite despite problems of different secular parties, despite their compromises on different levels that is hight time that all of us who are really secular come together and try to fight the communal fascism of the RSS and the BJP. We should raise the issue of secularism, raise the issue of democracy and raise the peoples' issues. It is high time that we raise the issue and the struggle is way ahead. That's the positive note that we will like to leave on. Thanks a lot for giving us your time Subhashji. Thanks a lot for watching Newsclick.

DISCLAIMER: Please note that transcripts for Newsclick are typed from a recording of the program. Newsclick cannot guarantee their complete accuracy.