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Centre moves on cow slaughter ban

Centre moves on cow slaughter ban

Author: Report by Amitav Ranjan
Publication: Indian Express
Date: May 5, 2003

States, UTs will be told to enforce ban; Cabinet will decide tomorrow

In a move that could help the BJP keep the poll pot boiling, the Cabinet plans to ask the states and Union Territories to pass a resolution banning cow slaughter, and delegate to the Centre the authority to enact an amendment introducing a uniform nationwide law.

If more than half of the state and UT legislatures empower the Centre to legislate, the proposed amendment would make sale of beef a cognizable, but bailable, offence. A safety valve has also been provided by allowing state governments to issue permits for sale of beef. Abetment of crime would also be a crime under the proposed law.

Smuggling of cows from one state to another and constitution of a permanent National Development Commission on Cows would also feature in the amendment. At present, cow slaughter is banned in 23 states but different laws and divergent penalties are being practised.

The move, which comes up for Cabinet approval on Tuesday, would take cow slaughter into the main Opposition Congress camp, forcing the latter to take a stand on the issue that has now snowballed into a secular versus non-secular sides.

The process itself is expected to take at least nine to 10 months, sources said, enough to keep the pot boiling for Assembly polls this year and the general elections next year. The credit for the strategy partially goes to the Congress' Madhya Pradesh leadership that has made it simpler for Atal Behari Vajpayee to revive an issue that has been on the backburner since a Constitutional amendment bill lapsed in the 1980s.

Large-scale violence in Digvijay Singh's Ganj Basada this January, following the recovery of a cow's head, propelled the cow into the political arena. Even Vajpayee was dragged in through a poster campaign. That spurred a bedlam in Parliament in March when a public member bill, introduced by Prahlad Singh Patel last May, seeking a Central legislation banning cow slaughter faced stiff resistance from the Congress and Left parties.

The two questioned the authority of the House to ask the Centre to legislate on the ban when the issue fell within the state list. The Congress accused BJP of making it a political issue, saying that the issue fell neither under Union or Concurrent lists and, therefore, the House did not have legislative competence.

The BJP's new move to initiate the change under Article 48 is a rebuttal to Congress where the Centre would pass a legislation after taking state governments into confidence and generating a broad consensus.
 


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