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Dadri lynching and banning Pakistan singer regrettable; but don’t blame us: Modi

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Narendra_Modi

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in an interview to Kolkata-based Bangla language newspaper Anand Bazaar Patrika, termed the Dadri incident ‘dukhad’ (unfortunate) and questioned the logic behind blaming the Central government for the incident.

He said the Dadri incident and the banning of Pakistani singer Ghulam Ali’s concerts were regrettable, but asked if it “is it fair to blame the Centre?”

Mohammad Akhlaq was beaten to death by a mob which suspected him of having stored and consumed beef. Several members of the BJP are among the suspects in the case.

‘Always practiced secularism’

The Prime Minister said that the “BJP had always practiced secularism in any situation where there have been differences; the party has never supported anyone involved in such incidents.”

He took on the Opposition too, saying that by accusing the BJP of communalism and polarising communities, “isn’t the Opposition itself guilty of polarising the atmosphere?”

(Agencies)

Lynching a man to death is small issue, says cop-turned-BJP MP

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Satyapal Singh

New Delhi: Police officer turned BJP MP Satyapal Singh today kicked up a row with his remarks calling Dadri lynching a “small incident”, evoking strong reactions from Opposition parties, which said it was a reflection of the party’s “polarisation” strategy.

“As far as a small incident like Dadri is concerned, our country’s democratic atmosphere is fully competent to handle. Our country is full competent to handle such incidents,” said Singh, who is the former Police Commissioner of Mumbai.

The BJP MP from Baghpat also said Government needs to take a view on the plight of Muslims as well as followers of other religion.

Reacting sharply to Singh’s comments on Dadri, Congress spokesperson Ajoy Kumar said it is a reflection of what the BJP was trying to do.

“I am absolutely dismayed at the remarks of the BJP MP, who was also a former Police Commissioner of Mumbai,” he said, alleging that such remarks reflect the “strategy” of BJP to “usurp” power by “polarising” communities.

SP leader Rajiv Rai demanded an apology from the BJP and alleged that it was aiming at “communal polarisation”, which would be seen more as Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections scheduled in 2017 comes closer.

He wondered if Dadri is a minor incident, what else is a big incident. “They should apologise. I am disgusted that this statement comes from an MP, who was a former police commissioner.”

50-year-old Iqlakh was dragged out of his home by a 200-strong mob and beaten to death after a public announcement from the local temple that the family had slaughtered a calf and eaten its meat in Uttar Pradesh’s Bishada village in Dadri.

The Uttar Pradesh government has submitted a report to the Centre on the issue.

Concerned over communal incidents in Dadri and other places, the Centre had last week asked all states to take strictest action against those who attempt to weaken the secular fabric by exploiting religious emotions.

The incident has triggered a nationwide outrage with a number of eminent authors deciding to return their awards.

(Agencies)

Anti-beef rioter Sangeet Som is founder of ‘halal’ beef exporting company

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Sangeet Som

Meerut: BJP MLA Sangeet Singh Som, who is at the forefront of the frenzied anti-beef protests, is in fact a co-founder of one of India’s “halal” meat export companies, which exports beef along with other meat.

The company, Al-Dua Food Processing Private Ltd, was founded by Mr. Som, along with Moinuddin Qureshi and a third partner, to deal in meat and meat products in 2005. According to Al-Dua’s website, the company is now a “leading producer and exporter of halal meat from India.”

Mr. Som’s role in promoting the company is at variance with the BJP’s campaign, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi who during the Lok Sabha polls, called the growing meat exports the “pink revolution.” Mr. Modi and others have said that the growing meat exports were a cover for slaughter of cows.

When a national daily confronted Mr. Som with the evidence, he flatly denied having anything to do with meat business.

“There was nothing about meat. I am a pure Hindu and would do nothing to hurt Hindu sentiment. You would be surprised to know that despite being a Thakur I don’t eat even egg and start my day with a havan,” said Mr Som, who is also an accused in Muzaffarnagar communal riots.

According to the Memorandum of Association of Al-Dua Food Processing, filed on December 19, 2005, the company, which exports halal meat to Arab countries, was started “to carry on the business of (sic) manufacturers, producers, processors, buyers, sellers of and dealers in meat, meat products…”

Official documents show that in 2005-06, all three promoters of Al-Dua, one of India’s leading halal meat exporting companies Mr. Som co-founded, also advanced unsecured loans to the company. Mr. Som gave Rs. 4 lakh, Moinuddin Qureshi Rs. 7.60 lakh and Yogesh Rawat Rs. 4 lakh. The company also received unsecured loans from two other companies totalling Rs. 10 lakh.

Official filings with the Registrar of Company Affairs show that the company purchased a piece of land for Rs. 30,78,000 in 2005-06.

On March 27, 2008, Mr. Som ceased to be a director in the company. He transferred his 20,000 shares in the company to Nasira Begum at Rs. 10 a share. There is no evidence of Mr. Som receiving back the unsecured loan he gave the company, or of him charging any premium for the shares in the company.

Al-Dua was not the only business dealing between Mr. Som and Mr. Qureshi, one of India’s leading meat exporters. Mr. Som has also been involved as an additional director in Al-Anam Agro Foods Pvt. Ltd. with Mr. Qureshi.

A day after telling Hindustan Times that he was unaware of being appointed a director in the company and that his involvement was only in purchasing a plot in Aligarh for a meat processing plant, Mr. Som took a different line when The Hindu confronted him with the evidence. The BJP MLA from Sardhana constituency in Meerut, admitted that he was a director of Al-Dua for about two years because he had invested about Rs. 9 lakh in the property.

“Being one-third stakeholder of the land I was a director in Al-Dua. In fact, I only asked them to make me one of the directors. But just two years after that we sold the land to somebody so it ended my relationship with Al-Dua,” he said.

Mr. Som insisted that Al-Dua was just a piece of land when Mr. Qureshi along with Mr. Rawat, whom he kept on addressing as “Delhiwale pandit ji,” bought it.

“The Al-Dua Food Processing has the best processing facilities and is an established name and has a reputation for which our products are most sought after in all exotic markets. Al Dua Food Processing are specialists in the export of quality halal buffalo, sheep/lamb, goat meat and hides,” the company’s website claims.

(Agencies)

BJP’s strategy is to make Hindus, Muslims fight each other: Rahul Gandhi

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Rahul Gandhi

Mandya: Launching a direct attack on Prime Minister and BJP in the wake of Dadri beef lynching, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday alleged that they have a “strategy” to polarise the country by pitting Hindus and Muslims against each other as he remarked that Narendra Modi has a “history”.

“The BJP and the Prime Minister have a strategy of polarising this country. They have a strategy of making Hindus and Muslims fight against each other.

“You can see that in every election, polarisation taking place, riots taking place. There were BJP people involved in the Dadri incident,” the Congress vice president alleged while talking to reporters here.

Dismissing the Prime Minister’s pitch yesterday for communal harmony, he said that while it was very nice of Modi to make such comments, “the Prime Minister has a history and the PM has a party that is behaving in a completely different way, which he doesn’t seem to want to stop”.

Modi had yesterday pitched for communal harmony, saying Hindus and Muslims should not fight each other but together fight poverty.

Gandhi, who is on a two-day visit of party-ruled state during which he will meet farmers affected by drought and other agricultural problems, also accused the Centre of neglecting farmers’ interests.

“The central government does not think that agriculture or the farmer is important. Whether it is the issue of Minimum Support Price (MSP) or crops being destroyed by bad weather, the government does not seem to have a strategy. It does not give priority to farmers,” he said.

Ruing that farmers are committing suicide in large numbers, he insisted the central government needs to do something about it.

“The Prime Minister has to take a look at it and help the farmers of the country,” he said.

Contrasting the functioning of the previous UPA government with that of the present dispensation, Gandhi said the Congress-led government had given a loan waiver of Rs 70,000 crore to the farmers.

He will also undertake a ‘padyatra’ tomorrow and hold interactions with farmers, students and women workers in Haveri district.

(Agencies)

Dadri lynching: Meat in Akhlaq’s fridge not beef, but mutton

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Akhlaq's daughter and sister at his residence in Bisara village, in Dadri. (Photo: IE by Gajendra Yadav)

Akhlaq’s daughter and sister at his residence in Bisara village, in Dadri. (Photo: IE by Gajendra Yadav)

New Delhi: A forensic test has proved that the meat which was found in Akhlaq’s fridge was mutton, and not beef.

Police had sent a sample of the meat from Akhlaq’s fridge for forensic testing.

Initial tests had suggested that it was mutton. However, the police had further sent the sample to another lab for a conclusive report.

The conclusive tests also showed that it was mutton and not beef, official sources said.

The police, however, is being criticized for sending the meat sample for a forensic test because whether it was mutton or beef had little bearing on the crime.

On September 28, Akhlaq was allegedly beaten to death and his son left injured by a 200-strong mob following a rumour that his family was involved in cow slaughter.

(Agencies)

Nobody should impose their personal food habits on others: Deve Gowda

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Deve Gowda

Bengaluru: JD(S) supremo Deve Gowda commenting on recent beef ban row said, “Food habit is a personal issue and hence nobody should meddle, we should not divide society on the basis of caste and religion.”

“Nobody should prevent others from consuming beef. It’s a personal choice. We should avoid unnecessary debate on atheism,” he added.

Meanwhile, he also slammed NASSCOM for not inviting the CM for the Indo-German business summit attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. “This is an insult to six crore Kannadigas”, he said.

Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of the Congress party in the Lok Sabha also criticised government over beef ban and said, “BJP and Modi indulged in vote bank politics over beef ban. Nobody should impose their personal food habits on others. Government should focus on development rather than raising trivial issues”.

(Agencies)

Muslim MLA attacked by BJP legislators for hosting beef party

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bjp-kashmir-beef

Srinagar: Independent MLA Sheikh Abdul Rashid was today thrashed by some BJP legislators in the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly for throwing a beef party here, triggering an uproar from the opposition which staged a walkout.

The manhandling of the MLA, who had thrown a beef party at the MLA hostel here yesterday, came on a day the Assembly is scheduled to take up a bill on the ban on the meat.

As BJP MLAs assaulted him, several NC and Congress MLAs rushed to save him.

The assault on the floor of the House triggered an angry reaction from the opposition with National Conference leader Omar Abdullah saying it was impossible to digest the incident.

“What happened today is impossible to digest. An honourable member being assaulted in the house. It seems that they wanted to murder him (Rashid). If he had done anything that was objectionable that should have been put on record,” the former Chief Minister said.

On the beef ban issue, Omar said, “Our sentiments are also attached to this issue… We don’t force our religion on you. My religion prohibits consumption of alcohol and pork… Do I assault everyone who eats pork or alcohol,” he said, demanding that the Chief Minister make a statement on the issue.

Condemning the assault, Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed said sentiments should be kept under check. “I condemn this incident. The House has good tradition ….sentiments should be kept under control. I ask Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh to apologise for the misconduct of his party MLAs,” he said.

Singh on his part said, “We do not approve of what happened in the Assembly today. But what happened in the MLAs hostel yesterday was also wrong,” he said, referring to yesterday’s beef party.

The Deputy Chief Minister stopped short of apologising for the incident following which the entire opposition staged a walkout. BJP MLA Ravinder Raina said Rashid had hurt the sentiments of Hindus.

“It was not a case of physical manhandling. He has hurt the sentiments of Hindus. I did not beat him,” he said. “Engineer Rashid hosted a beef party last night, It hurt my sentiments. I conveyed the message to the Chief Minister and called SHO but no action was taken against him” he said.

Rashid, the legislator from Langate, had yesterday hosted the beef party in the lawns of MLA hostel here, with the guests being served beef kebabs, ‘ristas’ (meat balls) and beef patties.

Rashid had claimed that he did not want to offend anyone but wanted to send a message that “no court or legislature can prevent the people from eating what they want”.

The step was “just to give them (legislators) a clear message that it hardly makes any difference whether you accept or reject the bill… religious matters cannot be kept subservient to courts and assembly,” the MLA had said. “Nobody on earth, no assembly, no court and no institution can stop us from having what we want to have,” he added.

The beef row erupted after a division bench of High Court in Jammu directed the state to strictly implement the ban in the state as per the law.

The order had evoked strong resentment from various quarters with many separatist and religious organisations terming it as “interference in religious affairs” and sought revocation of the law, besides pressing for implementation of ban on liquor in the state. The issue is now before the Supreme Court.

(Agencies)

Kerala students condemn Dadri incident; Hold beef fests in campus

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kerala-students-beef-protest

New Delhi: Students in Kerala have come up with an innovative idea to protest lynching of Akhlaq over rumors that he had consumed beef. The students staged a stir by holding beef festivals in college campuses in the state.

The event saw students sharing a hearty meal of beef curry and bread. Invitations were also extended to those present in and around the campus.

The first such event was initiated by the CPI-M’s student wing SFI and was held at Sree Kerala Varma College in Thrissur on Oct 1. However, the event later ran into trouble after the ABVP activists reached the scene.

Six students were suspended by the college management as the institution has a long-standing rule against non-veg food inside the campus – the college is managed by the Cochin Devaswom Board.

But, not to be disheartened by the turn of events the cause was taken up by students of Ernakulam’s Maharaja’s College and this time it was Congress’ student wing KSU that took the lead.

The event witnessed happy faces eating beef as a mark of protest. A bunch of girls was even seen clicking selfies with plates of beef curry in their hand.

KSU leader Mohammed Rafi said, “KSU has conducted a beef festival…it is to protest against growing fascist elements in our country.”

Referring to the killing of Akhlaq, he added that fascist elements are active not just in northern parts of the country but also in Kerala.

He also slammed the management of Thrissur’s Sree Kerala Varma College for suspending students who held a ‘secular’ beef festival.

(Agencies)

Dadri like incidents hurt country’s image: Arun Jaitley

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arun jaitley

New York: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has condemned the lynching of a man over beef eating rumour in UP, saying such incidents hurt the country’s image.

“India is a mature society. We need to rise above these kinds of incidents because they certainly don’t give a good name as far as the country is concerned,” he told reporters here after a lecture at Columbia University yesterday.

He was responding when asked to comment on the lynching incident in Dadri which has happened at a time when the government was wooing foreign investors.

“I have also said they can amount to policy diversions in that context so it is the responsibility of every Indian in his actions or comments to stay clear of unfortunate and condemnable instances like this,” the senior BJP leader said.

A 50-year-old man was lynched and his son was critically injured by a mob in Dadri on last Monday after rumours that they had consumed beef.

(Agencies)

SC suspends beef ban in J&K for two months, asks high court to form bench

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Supreme Court

New Delhi: The Supreme Court today suspended for two months a controversial court order for enforcing ban on the sale of beef in Jammu and Kashmir while asking the Chief Justice of J-K High Court to set up a three-judge bench to decide on two conflicting orders on the issue.

A bench headed by Chief Justice H L Dattu directed that the September 8 order of the Jammu bench of the High Court, by which it had ordered enforcement of ban on sale of beef in the state in pursuance of Ranbir Penal Code (RPC) provisions, be kept in abeyance for two months.

The bench also referred to the order passed by another division bench of high court at Srinagar in which the state was given liberty to amend the RPC provision in question.

The bench, also comprising Justice Amitava Roy, said, “Since there are conflicting expressions given by two division benches of the high court, we request the learned Chief Justice to constitute a bench of three learned judges to take a decision on the writ petitions.”

Asking the apex court registry to intimate its counter part about the order “forthwith”, the court further said that the Chief Justice of the high court will be at liberty to decide the place where the larger bench will hear and decide together the two writ petitions.

The bench disposed of the petition filed by the state government which had said that the inconsistent views of the two benches of the high court were being “misused” to disturb peace and communal harmony in the state.

While the Jammu bench of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court had ordered enforcement of the bar on the sale of beef in the state under the RPC, the Srinagar bench agreed to hear a separate plea seeking scrapping of the provision that bars slaughter of bovine animals.

The order asking the police to enforce the beef ban had led to strong protests in the state and forced a three-day internet shutdown during the Eid festival to avert any flare-ups.

The state, in its plea, had said, “Vide impugned orders of Jammu & Srinagar Benches of the Jammu & Kashmir High Court… have passed two mutually conflicting orders which have grave ramifications for the law and order situation in the State of Jammu and Kashmir as orders are being misused and interpreted in a manner so as to disturb peaceful fabric of the State.”

It had said that the apex court should “ensure there is uniformity and consistency in judicial pronouncements and no scope to exploit the present situation by disrupting communal harmony, amity and peace in the state and thereto alienating people of the State from national mainstream.”

In its order, the Jammu bench had said, “The Director General of Police is directed to ensure that appropriate directions are issued to all the SSPs/SPs, SHOs of various police districts so that there is no sale of beef anywhere in the State of J&K and strict action is taken in accordance with the law against those who indulge in it.”

On the other hand, the Srinagar bench, on September 16, issued notice on a plea that had sought striking down of the RPC provision banning slaughter of bovine animals.

It was alleged in the plea before the Srinagar bench that the RPC provision was “ultra-vires” as the bar constituted an “unreasonable infringement” on fundamental rights of citizens.

The Srinagar bench had also said that the pendency of the plea before it will not operate “as a bar” if the state wants to do away with the provision.

“…We would like to make it clear that if the State or Legislature contemplates or takes steps for scrapping or amending the provisions as are under challenge, the pendency of this writ petition shall not operate as a bar,” it had said.

(PTI)

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