Beef politics is taking a bite out of Meghalaya BJP
The proverbial "beef" between gau rakshaks and meat-eaters seems to be stuck in the BJP's throat. How else does one explain this — BJP members announcing a beef party to celebrate three years of the Narendra Modi government?
A few BJP leaders in Meghalaya added a new dimension to the controversy over the Centre's latest ban on sale of cattle for slaughter by proposing the beef party.
On May 31, BJP's North Garo Hills district president Bachu Chambugong Marak announced on Facebook that a beef and bitchi (local term for rice beer) party would be held to celebrate three years of the Modi government.
That, of course, prompted the BJP to threaten to sack him even as it struggled to clarify that "states can have their own laws on cattle slaughter that echo local habits".
The party’s national in-charge, Nalin Kohli, told mediapersons that Marak would be sacked. "The district president... is going to be sacked. If he wants to leave the party, we will welcome it," he was quoted as saying by The Telegraph.
But Bachu remained adamant. "We will organise the beef party because beef is our traditional food. We, the Garo people, cannot live without eating beef."
"We will automatically quit the party if the leadership cannot solve the issue. But if the party can solve the problem, we will remain in the party. There will be no support for the party in the Garo hills if it bans beef," he said.
Today (June 1), Bachu's colleague and BJP West Garo Hills district president, Bernard N Marak, resigned from his post over the issue. He lamented that the party leaders were not respecting the tradition and culture of the indigenous people.
"Tribal people in the northeastern states have our own style of celebrating and feasting. In Garo Hills, a cow is slaughtered on a festive occasion. Therefore, we wanted to organise bitchi-beef party to celebrate three years of Modi government, but the party leaders are against it," Marak told IANS.
"What is the point of being part of a political party that does not want to keep our Garo tradition and culture alive? They (BJP leaders) cannot dictate us on our food habits," he said.
A few days back, Bernard, the former chief of the armed group Achik National Volunteer Council, had announced that the saffron party would bring down prices of beef in Christian-dominated Meghalaya if it comes to power after next year’s Assembly polls.
The Hindustan Times reported that Bernard told the newspaper that the beef party was to be held in the second week of June “in a bid to clear doubts of the local people that BJP was trying to impose a ban on consumption of beef”.
Even though the BJP has managed to rope in a considerable number of members to the party of late, the latest controversy has left Kohli worried following rumours of more resignations likely to follow.
Ever since the BJP's proposal to ban cow slaughter countrywide last year, the party's local units in the Northeast have been busy allaying fears that such a ban would be imposed in the region since the "reality in Northeast is very different"(where there is a majority Christian population).
In March, the party had categorically said that no such ban would be imposed in the three states of Mizoram, Meghalaya and Nagaland. The three states are going to polls next year.
After making a remarkable foray into the Northeast — first winning the Assembly elections in Assam in 2016, a "back-door entry" in Arunachal Pradesh, and forming a government in alliance with smaller parties in Manipur in March 2017 — The BJP is looking to repeat the successes in the three states besides Tripura.
In Nagaland, the Naga People’s Party (NPF) — which is a BJP ally in the NDA — is in power.
The BJP is particularly confident of winning Mizoram and Meghalaya with the help of regional allies against the Congress, which will be fighting anti-incumbency.
The countrywide chorus against the Centre's recent notification banning the sale of animals for slaughter at livestock markets and animal fairs has grown louder with non-BJP-ruled states — Kerala, West Bengal, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu — resisting the new regulations.
And now with resistance from within the BJP, the beef couldron surely seems to be on the boil once again.