Saving India's sacred cow
Once a bastion of secularism and tolerance, India's Congress Party now also panders to militant Hindu chauvinist sentiments, reports Sudhanshu Ranjan from New Delhi
Last month witnessed a battle of wits between the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) and the main opposition party, the Congress, to woo the Hindus. Four small states went to poll on 26 February last to elect their legislative assemblies; elections for the other four big states are scheduled for November.
As it is common before every election, the militant Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) has intensified its campaign for the construction of the Ram temple at Ayodhya, in India's most populous state Uttar Pradesh.
First the government of India appealed to the Supreme Court on 4 February to lift the ban on religious activities on the land. The move drew flak from BJP's allies in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), saying that the BJP was deviating from the NDA agenda. But the move did not appease, much less please, the VHP which wanted the government to hand over the land by 22 February. The VHP then announced the holding of Dharma Sansad -- or Parliament of Hindu Religion -- as well as demonstrations in front of the Parliament in New Delhi on that day.
Succumbing to pressure from the government, the Dharma Sansad announced it would hold demonstrations in front of the parliament for an indefinite period from 27 March onwards. It also vowed to make India a Hindu state within two years and officially change India's name from the secular "Bharat" to "Hindustan". It also blasted Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee for betraying the cause of the Hindus. VHP head Ashok Singhal lambasted Vajpayee for not fulfilling the promise he made last year to resolve the Ayodhya imbroglio by 12 March this year.
However, the prime minister's decision to solve the problem surmounted its first hurdle when the Supreme Court decided to hear a plea to reconsider a ban on religious activity on the "undisputed" portion of the land before the ownership of the "disputed part" (where the Babri Masjid mosque, which was destroyed by a mob of Hindu extremists, once stood) is settled.
The court, however, made it clear that it would not be pressured into hearing the plea immediately simply because the VHP had set a deadline for handing over the "undisputed" land. The court's ban on religious activities was imposed in March 2002 in response to a petition filed by Mohammed Aslam, who had opposed any land transfer until ownership of the disputed site was settled.
In the meantime, senior Congress leader and Madhya Pradesh (MP) Chief Minister Digvijay Singh made a public statement that the Congress was not opposed to the construction of the Ram temple at Ayodhya.
Unnerved by BJP's landslide victory in Gujarat, Singh has been pandering to the Hindu sentiments before the MP state goes to the polls next November. Over the past few weeks Singh has systematically targeted the BJP on an issue that is supposedly dear to the latter's heart, a legislative ban on cow slaughter. Accusing the BJP of a patent lack of sincerity, the Congress leader requested the prime minister to introduce a bill in parliament on the issue.
The MP branch of the Congress Party pasted posters depicting the prime minister as a closet beef-eater. The MP youth Congress chief issued a letter calling upon its cadre to spread the word about increased beef production under the central government. Vajpayee not only denied the accusation vehemently saying he would prefer to die than eat beef, but also pulled up his party's MP branch for not countering the Congress's disinformation campaign.
The Congress, however, withdrew the accusation after triggering the controversy. But Digvijay Singh stands by his demand. He argues that his plea for a ban does not amount to a hijacking of Hindutva (militant Hinduism chauvinism). From Mahatma Gandhi to Vinoba Bhave, an important section within the Congress has always favoured a ban on beef. The protection of the cow has long been a live political issue in India.
From the inception of the independent state of India, the banning of beef has remained the subject of passionate debate in the Constituent Assembly. Yet the founding fathers stopped short of a ban, merely including protection of the cow as a directive principle of state policy. This was done for a reason. Some legal luminaries are of the opinion that it would set a wrong precedent for a secular state to legislate on matters of religious faith. Beef eating has generally been common practice on India, the sacred status of the cow notwithstanding.
The BJP, which was pushed to the wall by the Congress offensive, bounced back with renewed strength. "The BJP has no intention of dumping the NDP agenda and going back to its own core agenda, but if the Congress backs a ban on the slaughter of cattle and supports legislation in favour of a uniform civil code, the BJP would persuade its NDA allies to agree," Deputy PM L K Advani said on 28 February in New Delhi.
Even before Digvijay Singh's intervention, the government was toying with the idea of an all-India ban on the slaughter of cattle following the recommendation of the Lodha Report on cattle preservation submitted in July 2002. But the Congress's MP leadership has made it much easier for the BJP to back an issue that has been put on the back burner since the 1960s.
It is likely that such emotive issues will be whipped up during upcoming election campaigns for the four states. But the results of the Himachal Pradesh elections have shocked the BJP, which has been ousted from power by the Congress. The BJP's defeat in a state with a 99 per cent Hindu population has sent a strong signal that emotional issues cannot obscure real issues of governance and development. The battle of the polls focused on two traditional rivals, the Congress and the BJP. The stakes were very high for both parties, and although relatively small in size, Himachal Pradesh was expected to set the tone for the upcoming legislative assembly elections in November.
