the anti cow slaughter bill

the BJP led Govt. of karnataka passed the much debated anti-cow slaughter bill, amidst the hullaboo and ruckus of the opposition as the House was already embroidled with the raging iron mining controversery.the media has lost no oppurtunity in continuing its pseudo-secularistic propaganda[which increasingly seems to be a second voice of the central government]..
The articles and views written in opposition of the Bill ranged from the quirky to the ridiculous.arguments ranging from the impending doom of all those associated with the beef industry to the plight of animals at the Bannerghatta national park who needs a specialized diet of beef only and of course the secularism-coated concept of a conspiracy to change the diet patterns of the minority...
i wish the media was more responsible in voicing its overt concerns about the bill..they could have at least considered a debate or a counter view point..which should ideally be the case for any controversial issue..instead they choose to raise the issue in blatantly biased light.

Cow Slaughter amd its Ecologic implications

The importance of the total ban of cow slaughter stretches far beyond its ethno-religious significance..
The world today stands on the ledge of an ecologic disaster..our increasingly consumerist lifestyle and unrestrained materialism has put unprecedented pressure on natural resources..the most glaring example of the same is the disastrous impact of the American beef industry on the tropical rainforests directly and consequentially on global warming and economic collapse.
It is incredible to note that about 40 years of relentless pursuit of consumerism has brought the US to a state wherein more than 90 % of their farmlands produce food for livestock instead of humans.yet it meets far less than the demands of the beef industry..which then goes hunting down third world countries like Brazil,Ecuador,Bolivia,Columbia,Peru,etc..all of which have two things in common..a starving debt - ridden economy and a treasurehouse of the worlds densest tropical rainforests..
Today..as you read this article..hundreds of hectares of this precious rainforests are being devastated by hash-and-burn clearing to make way for grazelands for the beef industry..within a few years of which it would be a denuded wasteland..
These developments hold a powerful lesson for us..the sacresance of the cow in India serves much more than providing religios succour to Her 84 crore Hindus..it provides the much needed ecological sustenance..dramatically reduces our carbon footprint..and in fact...form the foundation pillars for the resurgence of the Indian economy ...
Our policy makes need to understand beyond statistics and GDP..beyond development and growth..beyond capitalism and pseudo-secularism..to percieve the fact that our ancient rishis did not hold the cow sacred for no reason..

cow slaughter in India-its legacy

The slaughter of the cow in india and our Govt's refusal to pass a total ban on it ,would go down as one of the historical example of the failure and weakness of a race to stand up for his Dharma and establish righteousness in an issue that has aboslutely no merits and has been only twisted and contrived to extract election mileges..
contrary to popular perception invaders and kings who have ruled our country have shown great sensitivity and tolerance to this one act. Not one but several Mughal rulers imposed a total ban on cow slaughter to respect Hindu and Jain sensititvies..[The clash within: democracy, religious violence, and India's future By Martha Craven Nussbaum]...
The legacy of cow slaughter owes its origins to The British Empire which carried out its large scale practice ,mainly for satieting its huge army contingents. They then managed to project it as an essential principle in the practice of free religion for the Muslims..by this ingenious stance they managed to kill 2 birds with a stone[as they have often done against our fat-headed race]..they got away with being saddled with the blame of this practice and secondly..sowed the seeds of a perennial conflict; the flames of which would be forever fuelled by this pseudo-secularist ideology..
It is interesting to note that the anti cow-killing movement[1880-1884] almost upturned this boat as people cutting across religious lines took part in a vociferous agitation against them and that actively included Parsis,Muslims and Sikhs. (i have often wondered why our history text-books never mentioned this "secular' protest while they unabashadly dedicate chapters to notorious rulers who have been enemies of our culture like Babar, Aurangzeb,jehangir and almost creating demi-god impressions about them in our impressive minds..possibly it would amount to saffronization of textboot..lucky that the cow rarely comes saffron in its hide color]well thats a different story altogether)
The legacy..as usual continued and for the pat 5 decades our successive govts used[rather abused] this principle of secularist freedom to selectivley allow slaughter of cows in our country.In 1966 Indira Gandhi refused to bring on the legislation even on the table despite nationwide protests which led to police violence and deaths..
In the present scenario slaughter for meat continues large scale in Kerala ,West Bengal and North Eastern states..there are more than 32000 unlicensed abbattoirs in our country where the animal is transported to and killed in a gruesome and utterly unhygenic manner..millions of cattle heads are made to walk across the vast Gangetic plains of Bihar,jharkhand and West Bengal for illegal transportation to bangladesh for slaughter..
On this backdrop i would write a series of posts on this practice..there are severeal aspects from which to look at it..ethical, economic,political,demographic as well as karmic..
i for one feel there should be a healthy national debate on the issue and if passed a total , blanket ban imposed on it...