Yogi Adityanath, Slaughter House Ban and Real Intent

Two decisions of UP chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, have got wide attention. One was creation of Anti Romeo Squad. The second was closing down slaughter houses operating without valid licence. Closing down of slaughter houses will have impact on peoples lives as well as on states economy.

• Many people working in slaughter houses will become jobless. There will be impact on tanneries that process animal hide. According to estimates 25 lac people will be affected, either directly or indirectly.
• Export oriented meat processing industry will lose revenue to the tune of 11361 crore rupees.
• Leather processing and leather goods industries which brought around 5.9 billion dollars will be affected.

State government is going ahead to fulfill its election manifesto. It is quoting on 2012 supreme court judgement on modernisation and monitoring of slaughter houses in every city. Accordingly, government has come out with stringent guideline to setup a slaughter house. While, there should be no disagreement with the apparent intent of UP state governments decision to ban illegal slaughter house on the ground that :

• Animals used for slaughtering must be monitored. Meat coming from these animals may not be fit for eating.
• Animal slaughter must be done in approved premises with facility to dispose off animal waste. Indiscriminate unregulated disposal degrades environment and damages health.
• Argument that an illegal activity has been going on for a long time is not a reason to  perpetuate it. More so when the highest court of the nation has produced a judgement on the issue.

Yet the alacrity with which government took the decision, raises a few eye brows for the following reasons:

• Slaughter houses are mostly owned and run by members of minority community. Though many Hindus work in these abbatoirs, predominant workers belong to muslim community.
• Despite repeated assurance, it has emerged that many establishments with proper paperwork and some with minor violation/s, have been shut down.
• Many slaughter house owners have claimed that the regulation will put them out of business. There is no clarity about time taken to obtain the whole host of permission, how much fee one has to fork out to obtain each licence.
• Even big slaughter houses with all the papers in place, are not comfortable. There is rumble in society that sacrifice of other members of cow family like buffalo should be banned too. Transporters are wary of ferrying animals. If not gau rakshaks, then animal rights group may pounce on them.

Government is within its right to frame guidelines how business should be run. More so when health and lives of people depend upon it. As observed by High Court of Allhabad, responsibility of government does not begin and end with stopping illegal business operations, state must facilitate running of legal businesses. Court has ruled that activities related to food, food vending and food practices fall under the category of right to life. Let us hope better sense will prevail, and state will come to aid of people whose life and livlihood it is infringing upon.

The real intent behind slaughter house ban is unclear.

• Is it to uphold supreme court ruling on abattoir modernisation?
• Is it to teach minority community a lesson?
• Is it an attempt to introduce vegetarianism through backdoor?

There should be no doubt in any ones mind that there are people who consider eating meat to be impure. Is it this lobby, that is also BJP votary, that is promoting vegetarianism and winning? If successful, nearly 100 – 200 million very poor people, mainly dalits and muslims, will lose out on an inexpensive source of protein in their diet.

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