Source: The Wall Street Journal
Is it acceptable for vigilantes to beat a man to death for transporting cattle? In most countries, the question would be ludicrous. In India it has sparked a fresh round of debate on a charged issue: how governments should regulate beef in a land where most people regard the cow as sacred.
Earlier this month, on a busy highway in the northern state of Rajasthan, self-appointed cow protectors stopped two pickup trucks carrying livestock bought at a local market. The mob assaulted Pehlu Khan, a 55-year-old Muslim dairy farmer, and four other men. Khan later died in the hospital of injuries suffered during the beating.
India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, has tightened restrictions on beef in several states that it controls. Proponents of these laws see protecting cows as an essential symbol of a humane Hindu civilization that values life. According to the conservative columnist Swapan Dasgupta, restricting beef in India is a matter of “bowing to common decencies.”
Many BJP supporters also view the issue through a historical prism. They argue that for centuries, first under Muslim rulers and then under the British, Hindus lacked the political power to end a practice that they found hurtful and humiliating. It’s only natural, then, for independent India to honor the religious sentiments of the wide majority of its people. Some 4 in 5 Indians are Hindus, most of whom revere the cow.
Categories: Asia, India, The Muslim Times
‘Proponents of these laws see protecting cows as an essential symbol of a humane Hindu civilization that values life.’
The above statement seems to value ONLY animal life. Not the human one where this mob took one. Also, they assumed that since the transporters were Muslims, they were doing so not for dairy purposes, but for slaughter. Disgusting people and a highly questionable government which protects the life of animals, above its citizens.
I would like to ask the Hindus, is for example, a person eats the leaves of a Tulsi(they worship this, too), bush, and might not water it and it dies, what are the consequenses of it dying? This too, is a living thing, remember?!
There are many such examples, but this is just one of them.