Muslim women beaten up in MP for carrying 'beef', and BJP is okay with it

Just two weeks after four Dalits were brutally thrashed by a cow vigilante group in Gujarat for skinning a dead cow, two women were reportedly beaten up by members of another group at the Mandsaur railway station in Madhya Pradesh on July 27 over suspicion that they were carrying beef.

The incident, which came into limelight because of a video clip which went viral, has created an uproar. The Opposition protested in Parliament while the ruling BJP also condemned it.

According to reports, the two Muslim women were found carrying 30kg of meat, reportedly of a buffalo, at the railway station.

In the video, some women are seen hitting and pushing the two victims. The police subsequently arrived at the spot and a case was registered against the two women for violating laws on carrying bulk meat, sources said.

MP home minister Bhupinder Singh assured of appropriate action on the matter.

Singh said if the women register a complaint, action will be taken against the attackers.

But the question is: action against whom? Only against the women found illegally carrying buffalo meat or also against the cow vigilantes who took law into their hands and manhandled the women instead of informing or handing them over to the police?

Such vigilantism has been rearing its ugly head time and again. Mohammad Akhlaq was lynched and his son were critically injured in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh in September 2015 on the suspicion of storing cow meat. Several people were arrested in that case.

But the incident has failed to deter the vigilantes because the police and administration have failed to send a strong message that such vigilantism or moral policing would not be tolerated. The law enforcing agencies need to set an example in order to discourage such groups from taking the law in their own hands.

Besides, most of the cow vigilante groups are directly or indirectly associated with the BJP or the Sangh Parivar, who strive for a ban on cow slaughter. The moral police draw their strength from these organisations.

The BJP is not seen taking a hard stance against the cow vigilante groups.

Instead of taking action against such self-styled vigilantes or even castigating them, the BJP leaders either maintain silence or defend such acts.

This only encourages recurrence of such incidents. For instance, party MLA Yashpal Sisodia justified the beating up of the two women in Mandsaur. He said, "Those women are criminals and it was women who beat them up, so it's a reaction to an action."

Sisodia alleged that these women had been caught by police earlier also.

The inefficiency of the police and local intelligence in checking the spread of rumours is also responsible for such incidents.

Police-public communication gap leads to such serious incidents. The cow vigilante groups take undue advantage of the general perception about the police's inaction, inefficiency and corruption. They feel either the police will ignore or will "settle" the matter by taking bribes.

Meanwhile, the incident has reverberated in the corridors of power. BSP supremo Mayawati has attacked the BJP over the incident. She said, "BJP raises slogans 'Mahilao ke samman me, BJP maidan me', yet in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh women are thrashed due to rumours of carrying beef."

Congress leader Anand Sharma said in the Rajya Sabha, "Dalits and minorities are being attacked in the name of cow protection in BJP-ruled states." He demanded a discussion on the issue in the House.

Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad said: "Gau raksha (cow protection) is a must. But for that, Dalits and Muslims cannot be targeted."

The government too condemned the incident. Union minority affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said: "We believe that the country is run by the Constitution and the law, not the danda (stick). Any such incident is condemnable and not justified at all. The state government has taken action."

Until and unless the police, administration and the political parties seriously take some action, the Mandsaur incident may not be the last one.